With just over four months to go before the kitchen opens at Gordon Ramsay's first Irish restaurant, the notoriously sharp-tongued celebrity chef has praised local producers' "marvellous" fresh food.
Following a visit to the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, the five-star Co Wicklow hotel that will host the new restaurant, Ramsay travelled to Merrion Square gardens in Dublin yesterday to sample meat, vegetables, cheese and bread from Dublin and Wicklow.
He says Irish food traditions will influence much of the menu at the Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt restaurant, which is scheduled to open on October 1st. "The stuff that's being produced now - the lamb, the salmon - it's extraordinary, very artisan, very specialist."
Ramsay plans to work with several local suppliers in his new venture, which he said will be "relaxed and intimate" and have just 85 to 90 seats.
Despite a busy schedule that includes TV shows, books and managing more than a dozen other restaurants from the United States to Japan, Ramsay says he plans to keep a close watch on his Irish branch.
"I'm a control freak, so if I couldn't do it to the best of my ability, I wouldn't get involved. I've been here from day one, that's clear."
He says Dublin had become a dining hotspot, attracting world-class chefs - and demanding diners. "The customers, you've got the best of the best. Dublin has become a bit of a Monaco behind the scenes because it's an incredibly affluent area and it's more expensive now to buy in Dublin than it is in London."
But Ramsay says he's ready for the challenge, and even prepared for vegetarian diners, to whom he has been notoriously averse. "Yes, there will be vegetarian menus . . . it's about the customers in the end, it's the customers who keep you in business."