Denis Cotter
Denis Cotter was born in Macroom, Co. Cork and spent his childhood there. On leaving school, he worked in banking for eight years before leaving to follow an ambition to work with food and restaurants. Already a vegetarian, he trained as a cook in the famous Cranks restaurants in London. Following the well-organised and methodical systems of Cranks, a year spent in New Zealand gave Denis access to the emphasis on seasonality and creativity that would shape the basis of his cooking.
Back in Ireland, after a spell in a wholefood restaurant, Denis’ frustration with the limitations of the vegetarian industry sparked the opening of Cafe Paradiso in 1993, to create an environment where he could evolve a personal style of cooking. The focus would be on creating intensely pleasureable food, based on the inherent qualities of specific vegetables.
Café Paradiso was listed in the Bridgestone Guides 100 Best Restaurants from its first year and holds the highest ‘icon’ status in that guide book. It was voted ‘Best Restaurant in Munster’ by the readers of ‘Food & Wine’magazine in 2001, and Denis Cotter was voted ‘Chef of the Year ’ by the same magazine in 2005.
Denis Cotter is also the author of three books. Atrium, an imprint of the Cork University Press, published his first book, ‘The Café Paradiso Cookbook’ in June 1999; and his second, ‘Paradiso Seasons’ in June 2003. The first book was shortlisted for the British Guild of Food Writers Awards. ‘Paradiso Seasons’ won ‘Best Vegetarian Cookbook in the World’ at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Barcelona in 2004, and was shortlisted for the James Beard Awards in New York in 2005.
November 2007 saw the release of Denis’ third book, titled ‘wild garlic, gooseberries & me’ and published by Harper Collins. It has been shortlisted for the Andre Simon Awards to be announced in the spring of 2008.
While branching out into writing, teaching and other work, the focus of Denis Cotter’s time and energy remains on the Café Paradiso kitchen, and on continuing to develop relationships with vegetable and cheese producers.
∞