Piero Melis from The Courthouse Restaurant Kinlough - Simple uncomplicated food
Piero is a gardening chef and takes great p[ride in his polytunnel.
We think a blog about Piero Melis and The Courthouse Restaurant was long overdue. So we caught up with Piero recently to finally write the story.
Since we have been dining there from the very beginning and celebrated many birthdays and anniversaries with Piero’s food, we are naturally biased, so this is a dedication to the superb food created by Piero and his team, which they describe on their website as “simple, uncomplicated food.”
When we ask Piero how he ended up in Kinlough, he says with a smile on his face: “I opened the restaurant in December 1997 and I was only meant to stay for 3 months the previous summer, but I met my wife Sandra from Kinlough and I'm still here 28 years later!” We are curious about where he worked before coming to a little village in Leitrim. “ My background is in catering, I started my career in Italy and then I moved to London where I've worked in San Lorenzo, and then in Bentleys, where I had the honour to work with Richard Corrigan.”
Putting Kinlough and Leitrim on the international food map
Interested in how he sees his journey we ask about the changes he has witnessed: “People knowledge and appreciation of food as grown dramatically, certainly the interest has moved from traditional to more international cuisine.” Did winning Leitrim’s Best Chef 2011 in the Restaurant Association of Ireland Awards make a difference, we ask: “Winning Best Chef in Leitrim has really helped business and the media publicity boosted our numbers” Piero says. In 2012 the then Bridgestone Food Guide (by John &Sally McKenna) placed Piero as one of the “10 Hot Chefs” in the country while also honouring The Courthouse Restaurant as one of the Best 100 Restaurants in Ireland. He is now regularly featured in The John&Sally McKenna guide books, where they describe his food “artfully, transcendently simple, and best matched with the striking wines he imports himself from Sardinia, vivid with ancient tastes.”
Mediterranean diet and locally sourced ingredients
How does he himself describe his cooking? The answer comes quick and confident: “My cooking is based on the Mediterranean diet with a strong emphasis on seafood particularly shellfish”.
So, how important is his Sardinian heritage in creating the dishes on the menu? “Very important, most of my recipes are based on traditional Sardinian cuisine, like the fregola, octopus, sea urchins clams, and certainly my tomato sauce is based on my Mother's recipe!!”
Where do you source your ingredients and are local suppliers important to you, we ask: “I try to source as many ingredients as I can locally, and local suppliers are very important to me”, he says and Hans can still vividly remember delivering lettuce and other organic vegetables from The Organic Centre every Thursday for years. Piero is also a gardening chef, who takes great pride to grow herbs, microgreens and some vegetables in his own polytunnel.
Gaby loves eating fish at The Courthouse and Hans has to thank Piero for introducing him to eating steak cooked rare. We have literally eaten everything on the menu from Fivemiletown Goat Cheese bonbons with pickled radish to carpaccio of light smoked tuna, from Aubergines Parmigiana to seafood fettucine, from grilled breast of duck from local Thornhill farm to seafood paella and all dessert with crème brulee and panna cotta our favourites.
And we especially love the wines from Sardinia and the home made grappa.
Georgina Campbell’s Ireland says: “With dishes such as a starter of homemade lobster or crab parcel with mascarpone basil sun dried tomato sauce, and main of Pan fried Quail with champ wild mushroom & balsamic reduction both typical of the choices on his extensive and very appealing menus - this simplicity is skilfully achieved.”
Piero on TV with presenter Adrian Dunbar
Having a restaurant like The Courthouse just round the corner from us is just wonderful and witnessing the quality of the food, the cooking and the service always at the same very high standard is stunning to experience. Leitrim and Kinlough in particular are blessed to be on the culinary map of Ireland through Piero’s cooking. Our final question is what are the challenges for a restaurant in the Northwest? “Surviving the winter season is a challenge in the North west” is Piero’s short answer, but the fact that he is operating for 28 years speaks for itself.
Here we have Piero Uncovered
What is your favourite food? My favourite food is shellfish, however I also enjoy meat dishes like lamb, suckling pig, duck and various cuts of beef.
Finish the sentence: A chef is a passionate creator of food.
The country you travel for food: I've travelled in most of the European cities and I like to sample the local food and specially the fine dining to inspire me.
Three things you always have in your larder/fridge? Tomato sauce, parmesan cheese and definitely wine!!
What is your most used gadget? My knife is definitely my most used gadget.
Do you read cookbooks and which one do you come back to? Carluccio's and Rick Stein.
Who is your inspiration (not necessarily from the food): My Family for always believing in me.
What are you currently listening to? Jazz is my favourite music.
Something people don’t know about you? At 16 years of age I was a motocross rider.
What will be hot in 2024? Renewable energy.