JP McMahon’s Aniar Retains Michelin Star

JP McMahon’s Aniar Restaurant in Galway has retained its Michelin star. In an interview in the current issue of Hot Press, the well known restaurant owner and celebrity chef – who also appears in the RTÉ TV show The Taste of Success – admits that his culinary flagship is losing money. But clearly the restaurant is still delivering when it comes to what is put on the plate, retaining its star for the fourth year on the trot.

In a wide-ranging and often highly entertaining interview, McMahon was asked by Hot Press’ Olaf Tyaransen if he ever regrets being awarded a Michelin star. “Sometimes,” the chef responded. “Sometimes I’d prefer to have more friends. I’ve lost a lot of friends through the star. I’ve attracted a lot of good press and a lot of bad press. Half of me regrets it and half of me enjoys it.”

Meanwhile, the man who helmed the kitchen during the early days of Aniar, Enda McEvoy, has also retained the Michelin star, won subsequent to his departure from Aniar, at his own venture Loam. In an intriguing exchange, Olaf had asked about who ‘owns’ the star that is given to a restaurant.

“To get that star was… all of a sudden there was a lot of attention on Enda and me,” McMahon divulged. “That caused a lot of problems as well because it became like, ‘Who owns the star’?Is it the restaurant or is it the chef?

“Of course, we wouldn’t have got it without Enda,” he adds. "But Enda wouldn’t have got it without the restaurant.”

What’s great for Galway is that there are now two restaurants reconfirmed as of Michelin star quality in the city of the tribes – though the owners are no longer friends.

“He was my best friend for 17 years,” McMahon says of Enda. “He was the best man at my wedding. Did a Michelin star destroy that? I dunno. I went one way and Enda went another way."