Where the Chefs Eat: Anna Haugh's favourite restaurants in Dublin

Anna Haugh has a wonderfully magnanimous personality: a perfect combination of quick-fire wit and elegant articulation. Whatever she is talking about, she is funny, warm and highly knowledgeable, making her presence on our televisions – be it live cooking on Saturday Kitchen or judging on Masterchef – an obvious one. But her heart is clearly in the kitchen. She owns Myrtle in London’s Chelsea district, a restaurant described as serving “modern European food with an Irish influence”, and her new book, Cooking with Anna, is about to be released. It is one of the very few books I could cook almost every single dish from – that I would want to cook almost every single dish from – and while Anna has cooked with some of the greatest chefs in the world, her thoughts when she wrote it were absolutely with the home cook in mind. “The backbone of every cookbook,” she tells me “is thinking about it from a home cook’s perspective. I think we always think pressure comes from outside – from other people – but it’s actually from within us and the biggest pressure I felt when I wrote this book was doing good by the person who’s going to buy it because, let’s face it, there are people out there who are saving up money for a book or have asked for it for a birthday or Christmas gift and it’s a big deal for them to get a copy of their own. They’re the people I was really thinking about when I wrote this.”

Cooking with Anna is the type of book that you can pull off your shelf for a last-minute, midweek bit of inspiration, or dishes that will cater to friends at a dinner. “It’s not for a novice who can’t crack an egg” she tells me, laughingly, but “I want my book to work. I want it to be useful, so it was really important to me that, whatever I was doing, I passionately believed it.” Recipes inside include what she and her sister Catherine named ‘Christmas Day Soup.’

“When we were raised up,” Anna explains, “We did have super Christmases; we usually had shellfish or salmon as a starter, and we always had a minimum of three courses on Christmas Day. We don’t have fancy pants blood running through our veins, and we are from a very working-class area outside of Dublin, but Mum always made sure Christmas was nice. And Christmas day soup often featured.” Anna explains that this is a caramelised swede soup. “You blend it, and it’s delicious. These recipes were the reason I created my new book. I’ve taught curry to every single Irish woman I know, so one of my curry recipes has gone in there, too. A lot of them have made it for me, and it’s never the same, but it’s always good. The book is about real food that I genuinely cook a lot of, which I was raised with. I tried to strip things back and didn’t want it to be over-complicated for people.”

Anna’s approach to cooking isn’t militant, though she is highly professional in her own working life. “The cookbook is the guide, but it’s in the doing that you really learn, and I wanted to guide people in a positive, helpful, useful way. Good food is an approach. It’s an attitude. It’s not just about having the best of the best of everything.” Henry’s Goujons is another recipe that she used to regularly make for her stepson, Henry (who is now 19) and one she also makes for her own little two-year-old boy, Oisin. They are homemade and contain the secret ingredient that is Worcestershire sauce (not so secret now she has released the book with the recipe in it). It’s one she hopes one day to make for grandchildren, too. Cooking with Anna is a real insight into the food she makes at home and it’s approachable, feasible and bursts forth with utterly sumptuous recipes. And, with home in mind, she has opened up to us about Dublin, the city from whence she came, and one she regularly goes back to today.

“Dublin is like this bubbling, fun, wonderful cross between a busy city and a welcoming town,” Anna muses. “I only left because I was curious about food and wanted to extend my horizons, but I was very sad to leave. There is no place like Dublin. It’s a very Irish city with so much warmth.” The welcome she receives when she is back, she insists, extends to everyone.

“Even in very touristy areas of Dublin, you still find nice, local, normal people there, and when you go to the arse end of nowhere in Ireland, you could have a Polish person serving you out of a van, and they will welcome you like a native because that friendliness is just so contagious. And Dublin is not just about the food and a pint of Guinness. There’s lots to be done there. I grew up in a very working-class area, but I lived by the fields and rivers alongside good people trying to do the best with their lives, so I had a fantastic upbringing; we were allowed to run free like horses.”

And, with that, Anna shares her favourite spots to dine in Dublin, places she always recommends to friends and regularly frequents herself when back home.

Pichet

“Pichet is off Dame Street, one of the main streets in Dublin near Trinity College. Shane Gibson is the head chef. He’s an extraordinarily talented chef who really understands flavour and technique. That is a really important thing that needs to be protected in our industry because there are so many fads and new ingredients being introduced to chefs to mimic real skills, and, actually, that’s artificial. Pichet is incredible value, too. There’s a little bar, and I think you can stop in for cakes. Stephen's partner Natasha is an amazing pastry chef. It's also walking distance from Dublin Castle and Trinity College where the Book of Kells is.”

Who comes here?

“This is popular amongst locals and tourists alike because it’s got such a fantastic reputation and it’s in such a cool area.”

Best table in the restaurant

“The best table is just outside of the kitchen because then you can see all the action. For another person, that might be too busy, but I like the bustle by the pass. My sister, Catherine, is obsessed with tables in restaurants. I don’t sit down until Catherine has sat down. I’m more focused on the food. I’m all about the food and the wine, the chef-y element, but I need to think more about tables I think, now you’ve asked me this.”

Best time to go

“If you like a cocktail, head to the bar first before having dinner in the restaurant.”

Dish to order

“I delight in discovering new things, and there’s nothing I won’t try. I even had a blood clam in LA once, though it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. At Pichet, I had the duck breast with lentils and smoked sausage cassoulet, celeriac and duck pudding. Cassoulet is one of my favourite French dishes that I feel really captures brasserie style cooking.”

The Library

“Kevin Burke is awesome and his use of marinades, I think, is some of the best I’ve ever tasted. I think you can always tell when a chef is cooking what they are really motivated by and a great marinade just makes the food taste so good. It’s something we seem to forget in the UK. The tiniest marinade can make the biggest difference to fish or meat. He is a wizard with the marinade. It’s beautiful food. It’s interesting. It’s creative.”

Who comes here?

“I’ve been going [to The Library] for a long time, but I still mention it to people, and they thank me for sending them there. It’s a really fantastic restaurant and, although it is well known, it’s also not well-known if that makes sense. I feel like it is still being discovered.”

Best table in the restaurant

“At The Library, they have a private dining room downstairs, and we had a friend of mine who was getting married. Part of her wedding celebrations was a private dinner, so we ate in that private dining area. I thought it was really special for an intimate event, but upstairs, it’s a really tight, lovely little dining room. It’s got a very low ceiling. I’m a good guest, though. You could sit me on a bag of coal, and I’d be happy. They treated us like royalty. We had the most beautiful wines, and the food was just stellar. If you’re not in the private dining area, I’d probably go for a window seat, but there are some cosy seats under the bulkhead at the back.”

Best time to go

“The Library opens early for dinner, and it’s why I was able to get there for a delicious meal and wine and then get my little fella to bed on time. I’m not the best person to ask about timings and restaurants, but I do believe the food should be as good at lunch as it is at dinner.”

Dish to order

“The pork chop is what stood out for me. But Kevin does incredible turbot head, too. He does other fish heads, not just turbot, but it’s all about the marinades, and they cook it all over the grill; it’s brilliant.”

Pickle

“Pickle is very close to the National Concert Hall. And there’s a garden very nearby called Iveagh Gardens, which is not as well-known as Stephen’s Green, but it’s really lovely, and there is an elephant buried there, apparently. This is delicious. It’s by the Bleeding Heart pub, an absolutely brilliant pub near Camden Street. They do small plates. I guess you’d call it Indian food with a European feeling but still very much Indian food. You don’t go here for your traditional Madras.”

Who comes here?

“Everyone knows about Pickle. It’s a bit of an institution now.”

Best table in the restaurant

“I’m not organised enough to book tables, so I try and get there early because it’s very popular. If you sit at the back, you can literally eat beside the pass, and, as a chef, that’s usually what I’m drawn to, like a moth to the light. If my mother or my sister is with me, I’m by the window, but, left alone, I’m by the pass.”

Best time to go

“It’s lovely in the summer with the sun coming in through the windows.”

Dish to order

“They have lots of curries, of course, but they do these delicate, amazing chicken lollipops that are marinated, and which are delicious; and they do an amazing scallop dish with pomegranate.”

Craft

“The name of this restaurant makes me think of beer but it’s so brilliant and so delicious. Philip Yeung is the owner and the head chef, and he will take a key ingredient and do a few things on the plate, all done with loads of knowledge and care. It’s very seasonal. It’s incredible value for such a high standard of food, and the cooking is brilliant. Craft has won a tonne of awards.”

Who comes here?

“Craft is in a neighbourhood called Harold’s Cross, which is a village just on the outskirts of south Dublin, but it pulls a lot of regulars in from all across the city.”

Best table in the restaurant

“I am always partial to a seat right by the pass.”

Best time to go

“They open quite early, which is great for me. I go there with my parents, and it’s near enough to where they live that we get the bus, which I love with my son in the pram. We have a little drink in the pub across the road and then we go across for dinner.”

Dish to order

“The food is wonderful. I had a delicious lamb rump with lamb croquettes on the side and then a classic lamb garnish. I remember having the most amazing roast potatoes and a coco bean roasted hake with roasted leeks. My dad‘s nickname is Hake because he loves it so much, and it’s what he had.”

Orwell Road

“This is a fantastic new restaurant. It’s small, but it’s wonderful, and the passionate floor staff match the passion of the chefs. Every bite you eat, you can imagine them in the kitchen having a discussion about the dish. It’s all just delicious, and it reminds me of when I first opened Myrtle; it had that same feeling of jumping in two feet first and really going for it. I totally express myself through my food and you can feel the same thing, that same passion, at Orwell Road.”

Who comes here?

“This is definitely still locals only because it’s quite new.”

Best table in the restaurant

“The seats in the big windows are wonderful.”

Best time to go

“Whatever works best for you, but I tend to eat out based on opportunity because I’ve got a young son. Lunches are often great for me or early dinner.”

Dish to order

“The sides really stood out for me. I had an incredible carrot purée and I had this beautiful dressed carrot with black garlic purée and pickled onions on top. That was really good and, also, I had a wonderful, crispy fried oyster. We had only just walked in the door and I wanted everything.”

Cooking with Anna: Modern home cooking with Irish heart by Anna Haugh is out now (Bloomsbury, £26)