Johnny Oppermann, who has died in his 100th year was a high-profile chef and restaurant owner who made a major contribution to raising standards in the Irish hospitality industry. He was also a charismatic ambassador for fine dining, much revered by those who worked with him and those who attended his lectures at the college of catering in Dublin's Cathal Brugha Street.
He is probably best remembered for his high-profile role as catering manager at Aer Rianta, the airports authority, now known as the Dublin Airport Authority, for 20 years from 1949.
The first Aer Lingus flight from Collinstown, as Dublin Airport was known, took place in 1940. When war ended and transatlantic flight was about to become popular, there was a glamour around air travel that is hard to imagine nowadays.
The Collar of Gold Dublin airport restaurant was the place to be seen. Tables for New Year's Eve had to be booked a year in advance. Oppermann was the "high priest of gastronomy" according to the Irish Field, describing the catering for the Ward Union Hunt ball in 1966. Many glittering balls and dinner dances were held there.
Visiting dignitaries
Oppermann also oversaw dinners for visiting dignitaries and catering for racing at Fairyhouse and the annual spring and horse shows at the Royal Dublin Society. Between 1964 and 1967, he was chairman of the European catering committee, which represented catering managers of all European airlines.
In 1969, he left Aer Rianta to set up the Oppermann Hotel and Country Club at Kilternan, Co Dublin, with his brother Willy and brother-in-law Joe Wall. Though it attracted celebrity guests including Paul Newman, Seán Connery and Muhammad Ali, the business did not succeed. Oppermann blamed the outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland.
John Wilhelm Oppermann, always known as Johnny, was the eldest son of a Swiss chef who had settled in Ireland in 1912. Charles Oppermann was from Basle, and he married an Irish woman, Mary O’Farrell. He worked in Jammet’s, Dublin most prestigious restaurant, and later in the Gresham Hotel.
White jacket
They first lived in Synge Street in Dublin, where Johnny attended the Christian Brothers school, and later boarded at Newbridge College in Co Kildare. The boy’s hobby was cooking, and though his father told him “you’ll only have pain and grief with the white jacket on”, he signed up at the Shelbourne Hotel in 1932 in Dublin and was paid 2s/6d per week for being the top apprentice of the year.
Oppermann moved to England and worked at various establishments including the Norbury House Hotel at Droitwich, a popular spa town in Worcestershire, returning to the Gresham Hotel in Dublin at the beginning of the second World War.
A spell as head chef in the City Hotel in Derry followed, and he was appointed chief steward to the US forces in Northern Ireland, responsible for the catering at its bases. Back in Dublin working at the Moira Hotel, he met his first wife, Miriam Gallagher. They married in 1951, had two daughters and separated in 1965. She died in 1977.
In 1973, Oppermann and his second wife, Eileen Carton, opened Johnny’s restaurant in Malahide, Co Dublin. He cooked, she managed, and the restaurant won awards. In 1988 they sold up and retired to Co Wicklow. He continued to cook for his family until last year.
He is survived by his wife, Eileen, his daughters Michelle and Jackie, and his sisters Sophia and Frances.