Connacht Tribune
Taste of success
Lifestyle – High-flying chef Jamie Peaker has made Galway his home and turned his passion for sauces into a thriving new business. Dearbhla Geraghty hears his story.
From a high-flying lifestyle in London, where cooking for the who’s who of world affairs was a daily occurrence, to operating his own café in Spiddal, Jamie Peaker is stepping back from the rat-race and opting for a quieter life as ‘the Sauce Guy’.
In fact, the latest venture for the Kiwi chef is not very far removed from his days working in London’s exclusive celebrity hangout, The Ivy Restaurant, where he was the head sauce chef.
“At the time, they had an eight-month waiting list,” he recalls.
“We were full 364 days of the year, we did 150 covers for lunch, and 320 for dinner. We fed the stars – every day was an Elton John or Beckham or Pele, Bill Clinton could be in, it became very common practice to be feeding high-end and known celebrities.”
He never actually met the celebrities themselves, as he was working three storeys underground, but each order carried the celeb’s name, as they often requested particular variations of the regular menu.
He vividly remembers when Stephen Hawking ordered a filet mignon. The dish was presented to him for inspection, and once he was happy with it, it would be sent back to the kitchen to be diced up very small for him to eat.
How a 21-year old with long dreadlocks, from a small town in New Zealand, came to work in such an exclusive restaurant is typical of Jamie’s easy going attitude to life.
“I enjoyed travelling as a kid, and was washing dishes in a restaurant when a chef said to me: ‘If you like travelling, becoming a chef is a great idea because you can cook around the world. There’s an apprenticeship going in a really good restaurant down the road . . .’ So, I went and applied, and they put me through college.”
The conference centre where he worked had its own herb and vegetable garden, and much of the produce was sourced onsite, which he said was a great experience for a young chef.
However, he got itchy feet when he was 21, and booked a one-way ticket to London, without any job to go to, or place to stay.
“It was a very Kiwi thing to do, we are very far away from the rest of the world, and your teachers and parents tell you to go and see the world, so we gravitate quite easily towards England.
“I naively booked into a back packers (hostel) for two nights. One night I was going to go out and have fun, and the next day get a job and a house, but I was still there three months later,”
He was enjoying the freedom of being away from home to such an extent, that getting a job was far from his thoughts – until his savings ran out, and an “absolutely random” job at the exclusive Ivy Restaurant landed in his lap.
“I needed a job this one particular day, I went around to all the big fancy restaurants and hotels – Dorchester and Ritz – but they all had HR departments, so it would take weeks or months for them to get back to me, but I needed a job.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
