Celebrity chef Anna Haugh (centre) at the opening of the Priory Market with (from left) Bernard Bennett (Chief Operating Officer, Partas), Barbara Quinn (Partas chairperson), John Murray (RTE and former Echo reporter), John Kearns (CEO Partas) and Amy Keatinge (Marketing Manager, Priory Market)
Cutting edge of artisan food
Anna Haugh has always been proudly Tallaght, even from a young age.
Back home as the guest of honour to launch new food hub Priory Market, the Old Bawn chef recalls winning a cooking competition as a student at Presentation Secondary School in Terenure.
“A newspaper did an article on me, way before I even knew I was going to be a chef, and they changed my address to Terenure.
“I remember going to my mom and saying, why would they have done that? And she said, ‘oh, they probably thought it would look better for you’.”
Friends who weren’t from Tallaght, she remembers, would visit and make comments about how her house, or even her dad, looked just like theirs.
“There was this prejudice, I don’t know where it comes from.
“But sometimes a negative thing will happen, and it’s a good thing, because from that day, every interview, every radio interview (and you can fact check it!) – Tallaght. Can I say it again? Tallaght! I’m so proud of where I come from,” she says with a laugh.
Moving away from Dublin on her culinary journey to becoming an award-winning chef, a restaurateur with two London establishments, and a TV personality with her own BBC series and guest stints on Masterchef, that prejudice gave way to others.
“Once I moved out of Ireland, people wouldn’t have known what Tallaght was.
“I don’t have a lot of fear as a person, I’m very focused. But nobody ever really spoke to me and said, you know ‘one day when you’re a head chef’, it just wasn’t the way it was said, it was probably gender-related.”
Tallaght Marching Band
She sees Priory Market as an important community space, where “young people can come and be inspired professionally and socially”.
The €4 million social enterprise project is home to 12 local artisan food vendors.
“It’s a brilliant example of giving people who don’t necessarily get the opportunity to have their own business in a bricks and mortar type environment, and that it doesn’t always have to be a chain.”
Not that Anna has anything against chains per se, she notes. They serve a purpose.
“What we don’t want is that our food culture is defined by chains. Like London is full of food chains – every airport, every train station, every high street.
Looking around at Priory Market, Anna does wonder what kind of impact somewhere like this would’ve had on her dreams, if it had been open during her youth.
“If I was a young kid now coming to the Priory, I’d be daydreaming about having one of those stalls.
Emear, Sean Crowe TD, with Tallaght Person of the Year Glenda Murphy Smullen and Stephen
“We need more bravery in hospitality, to protect the culture and the personality and the new Dublin that we have now, the diverse Dublin.”
Highlighting good Irish food culture is where it is at for Anna, who has recently opened an Irish wine bar, The Wee Sister, alongside her fine dining Chelsea restaurant Myrtle (named in honour of Michelin star-winning Irish chef Myrtle Allen).
“Originally I wanted it to be a French wine bar because that was a nice and easy template I could just copy and paste that,” she told former RTÉ and Echo journalist John Murray during a sit-down chat during the Priory Market launch (Anna also spent a brief period working for The Echo on a paper round).
“But then when I looked at how many Irish restaurants were in London, very few existed. So I said this is going to have to be an Irish wine bar.
The Wee Sister serves wines made by Irish people around the world, and snacks made using Irish produce, like the fine dining served next door in Myrtle.
Mila, Colette and Christine with celebrity chef Anna Haugh (right)
“There’s just so much that Irish people do, more than dancing leprechauns or splitting the G.
“Don’t get me wrong – it’s part of our story,” she continued.
“Tallaght is a brilliant example of that; there’s a lot of bubbling talent ready to fulfil its potential.
“I just think if Ireland has Priory as an example, we could be a beacon for Europe of what real good food culture can be.”
