Local business pays tribute to top chef

KAY’S Kitchen in Clarehall Shopping Centre have paid tribute to one of their head chefs who sadly passed away recently.

Scott Curran (40), originally from Ballymun, was one of three head chefs in the central kitchen of the business for the past eight years. He sadly died following a heart attack last month. 

Bart Glover, proprietor of Kay’s Kitchen, has spoken fondly of the time Scott spent working with the company. 

“It was a terrible tragedy for us all,” said Mr Glover. “He was such a character. I own the place and before I go into the kitchen I would have to say: I wonder what he’s going to come out with today. 

“He was a great chef, he was a natural chef.”

Scott had only recently returned from a major cooking competition in Bratislava, Slovakia. 

A group of chefs from Ireland travelled to the competition to represent the country. 

Along with Stephen Reilly, head of food at Kay’s Kitchen, Scott competed against a vast array of international competition. 

Both Scott and Stephen won gold medals, while Scott won the overall as the Best Chef in the competition. 

“It was a great tribute to ourselves and we were all delighted,” Mr Glover said. 

Following their return Scott went on to attend the CATEX cooking competition in the RDS, one of the biggest catering events in Ireland, where people attend to sell equipment, software and different kinds of    foods. 

Scott, who won silver at a cooking competition held at the event, stayed at a nearby hotel to be close to the venue for the weekend. He tragically passed away after taking ill in his hotel room that night. 

“He was a born comic and he was a great man to pass remarks. Apart from his good cooking, his impeccable timekeeping, his reliability, his dependability and his skill as a chef. He was a very skillful chef and his personality was really something,” Mr Glover said. 

“It left a big hole in Kay’s that has to be filled. Now we have to go and find somebody else and all the rest of that. They may be as good as Scott but they’ll never be better. 

“He was somebody that was very good at his job but had a huge personality as well,” he added. In a symbolic gesture, Scott’s many friends in the catering business, wearing their chef’s attire, formed a guard of honour at his funeral mass in Star of the Sea Church, Mornington, County Meath. 

REPORT: Hayley Halpin