I grew up in a small
and a small County on a small island
I’m an Irish ramen chef my name is
Brandon Lee David Chang American
entrepreneur and chef said Ireland
ruined his thesis out of trouble and
famine comes a great food culture
Chang’s right Ireland doesn’t have a
food culture we have alcohol instead of
giving the world Parmesan caviar and
kimchi
we gave it Bushmills Bailey’s and
Guinness foods not our thing we’ve lost
the traditions that used to unify
officers our people I am very fortunate
as a child to have experienced those
traditions working on my grandparents
farm as a child they did things the
old-fashioned way and I wasn’t because
it was COO or wasn’t because of me the
more money it was because it’s higher
they knew how to do it so we milked cows
by hand we churned butter we made bacon
we cured hams we cut turf work
I was hungry work so every time that we
will go to the bog we’d bring our lunch
with us including the butter I’m gonna
dig a hole in the bog I’m put our food
in there for the day the bottom would
stay there maybe all week and we’d use
it as and when we needed it now that may
sound a little bit gross eating food out
of a dirt hole but when you think about
it a bogs a perfect place to store food
it’s temperature on a slow oxygen so
it’s a deal for preservation under bog
butter the thousands of years old and
dug up all across Ireland I know some of
us still useable to this day I didn’t
know what at the time but I may have
been one of the last generations to have
touched that kind of knowledge on the
is great training for working in
high-end restaurants yeah now I’m one of
the really lucky people in the world I’m
doing the exact job that I have always
wanted to do I’ve always wanted to be a
chef as a child I remember watching a TV
cookery program and there was a small
fat tubby French chef explaining why he
had purchased a lamb and Iran has handed
over the carcass he was explaining what
each individual piece of that animal was
going to do he cooked up the meal and
presented it and that moment a new food
was gonna be my life I was six years old
and that Chef was a libero I knew that I
wanted to cook food that really really
connected with people at a deep level so
at 13 I started my apprenticeship at a
professional kitchen and by 17 I was
working in Bali Malou house in Cork at
18 I was working for Garry Rosen London
where we want a Michelin star cooking
traditional British food and after that
I worked for Ramsey Roux on the less
goes on and on and on and after all of
that experience the question that I’m
asked most to this day is how do you
and my answer is always the same if you
want to chop onions fast chop a lot of
onions simple they rule on several
decades and I’m heading 40 years old I’m
still cooking these restaurants but I’m
no longer enjoying it I still want to be
a chef I still want to cook but I don’t
really understand why I’m not connecting
with the thing that I’m doing and I’m
not going to the people that are eating
the food and there’s not a connection
there either I realized this was amazing
amount of BS been spoken about what
we’re doing people are searching for a
sense of place people are looking for
different things but really it’s all
about technique we lost complete sight
of what we’re doing now there are guys
in the world who are doing brilliant
things with food like granny Redzepi
Massimo Bottura damn barber all
unbelievable chefs but the seats of the
restaurants are limited on the price
purple it is extremely high so it really
is just the food for the elite I didn’t
want to do that I wanted to create a
business that did something different so
what did I do well they did everything I
started an online business nobody bought
anything I delivered hot food I
delivered cold food nobody bought
anything I created healthy food
unhealthy food vegan food I even created
a fry pie
nobody Kim I couldn’t understand why so
the middle of 2016 I raged home and I
realized it was too much noise at too
much noise going on
and I walked in and I packed up my
cookery book library it was 150 plus
books plucked in the car and took to the
charity shop I gave it all the way I
bend all the ideas and thoughts that I
had about what I knew about food and
chopped us it was time to move on
was time to find some silence I’ll
had nothing left floor and water so to
say to make noodles I looked at
eastwards and found Japan I realized
there’s a lot of similarities between us
people say there isn’t but your pounds
and islands we’re in Islands they have
seaweed
we have seaweeds they have pegs we have
pegs they have mushrooms we have
mushrooms our most famous import our
most famous food the potato there’s an
import and I was our stumbling block
that’s the thing that stopped us
progressing not a bit of colonialism on
the side and I figured it myself
if we didn’t have those things in our
life or but our history be it would
probably be very very different
so I said stuff up I’m gonna create
something that’s uniquely Northern Irish
or Irish just happens to be in a
Japanese package and that’s where the
rebellion came from I wanted to create
something that was new and different but
recognizable at the same time so how did
I go about that now to create a
fast-food restaurant that comes from
sustainable sources has proved not to be
successful lots of guys have traded dirt
and lots of guys have filled how was I
gonna be different how was I gonna
succeed I look to the on-demand economy
right and I said to myself what are
these guys doing that’s so different I
looked through the big players and the
food field Weatherspoon’s sub where’s
Domino’s McDonald’s all the enemies what
are they doing that’s so different what
they’re doing is they’re giving people
what they want so I’m like okay that’s
easy I’ll just do that
I’ll give people what they want and what
people want is it wants something fast
and they want something that’s value
maybe not nutritionally valuable maybe
nocturnes real money valuable but
perceived value I wanted to give people
something that was true value we also
looked that’s Amazon that’s a good
company to sort of take care lead from
isn’t it it’s super successful I know
the things that Jeff Bezos was saying
and he’s saying the customer is the hero
put the customer first reverse-engineer
the customer journey back and discover
what it is they want and then make that
thing and give it to them I mean not all
sounds really simple but in chef world
you create a dish and you assume
everybody’s gonna love it and then you
go to a restaurant and you eat that dish
you’re like great
mediocre they’ve never asked a question
what do you want we answer that question
so people wanted fast food I wanted to
use sustainable sources I wanted to do
fast ramen
I am started to read a book by Joel
Salatin who’s an American farmer and
he’s really gone against the Graham he’s
an amazing guy he’s baaack conventional
farming and he’s made a little money
doing it it hasn’t been very popular of
a lot of the big lobbyists in America
because he’s gone against everything
I’ve said but he starts everything with
the ground level the soil as great
phrase is nobody ever asks about the
earthworms I think I got some brilliant
thing so when I go ahead and talk to a
former I’m not looking to hear about how
he finished off his meat or how he can
get a higher yield using the latest
technology Oh Raffi’s organic I only
care about delicious and right if he
talks to me about biodiversity about
hedgerows of a clover but naturally a
current nitrogen in the soil I’m on
board so we find the guy that got called
Kenny greasy the county runs a pork
business in town reggae and he makes
amazing food but it didn’t always I
wasn’t always like that
used to be a conventional former raising
pegs in the conventional way hi bat
bells high housing bells high feed bells
etc but he wasn’t making any money and
then on top of that he had health
problems
his doctor advised him to eat a low-fat
white protein diet and it didn’t seem to
be working he’s a man of his own mind so
he bend the doctors advice
I started eight as omen traditionally
reared pork his health improved he
looked at his business and realized he
got a better yield and money terms from
these animals
not because of weird or anything but
because he didn’t have to spend money on
that bills and heisting bills and feed
those they were roaming about freely so
we been conventional for me I don’t work
from all I had to do was work out how do
I use doc guy and my fast food towards
the end of 2016 I stripped everything
away if it was not central to your
eating enjoyment it didn’t exist we
don’t even have a printed menu you can
find all of our stuff online you can
order it through delivery it’s all there
we don’t have beautiful concrete
lampshades which I wanted to get but
they don’t add any value to you and they
certainly don’t shed any light on the
real food that we’re doing these guys
are heretics and I stand alongside them
Joel Salatin Kenny Gracie and people
like them now we’re not on a hundred
percent sustainable food business but
we’re doing what we can
little by little we’re not letting the
drive for perfection be the enemy of
good we’re trying to win people over and
advertise our business one mouthful of
one bowl at a time Robert Stevens the
finery Geek Squad said
marketing has attacks on the
unremarkable and we do want to be
unremarkable we want to win this battle
one bowl of time thank you [Applause]
and a small County on a small island
I’m an Irish ramen chef my name is
Brandon Lee David Chang American
entrepreneur and chef said Ireland
ruined his thesis out of trouble and
famine comes a great food culture
Chang’s right Ireland doesn’t have a
food culture we have alcohol instead of
giving the world Parmesan caviar and
kimchi
we gave it Bushmills Bailey’s and
Guinness foods not our thing we’ve lost
the traditions that used to unify
officers our people I am very fortunate
as a child to have experienced those
traditions working on my grandparents
farm as a child they did things the
old-fashioned way and I wasn’t because
it was COO or wasn’t because of me the
more money it was because it’s higher
they knew how to do it so we milked cows
by hand we churned butter we made bacon
we cured hams we cut turf work
I was hungry work so every time that we
will go to the bog we’d bring our lunch
with us including the butter I’m gonna
dig a hole in the bog I’m put our food
in there for the day the bottom would
stay there maybe all week and we’d use
it as and when we needed it now that may
sound a little bit gross eating food out
of a dirt hole but when you think about
it a bogs a perfect place to store food
it’s temperature on a slow oxygen so
it’s a deal for preservation under bog
butter the thousands of years old and
dug up all across Ireland I know some of
us still useable to this day I didn’t
know what at the time but I may have
been one of the last generations to have
touched that kind of knowledge on the
is great training for working in
high-end restaurants yeah now I’m one of
the really lucky people in the world I’m
doing the exact job that I have always
wanted to do I’ve always wanted to be a
chef as a child I remember watching a TV
cookery program and there was a small
fat tubby French chef explaining why he
had purchased a lamb and Iran has handed
over the carcass he was explaining what
each individual piece of that animal was
going to do he cooked up the meal and
presented it and that moment a new food
was gonna be my life I was six years old
and that Chef was a libero I knew that I
wanted to cook food that really really
connected with people at a deep level so
at 13 I started my apprenticeship at a
professional kitchen and by 17 I was
working in Bali Malou house in Cork at
18 I was working for Garry Rosen London
where we want a Michelin star cooking
traditional British food and after that
I worked for Ramsey Roux on the less
goes on and on and on and after all of
that experience the question that I’m
asked most to this day is how do you
and my answer is always the same if you
want to chop onions fast chop a lot of
onions simple they rule on several
decades and I’m heading 40 years old I’m
still cooking these restaurants but I’m
no longer enjoying it I still want to be
a chef I still want to cook but I don’t
really understand why I’m not connecting
with the thing that I’m doing and I’m
not going to the people that are eating
the food and there’s not a connection
there either I realized this was amazing
amount of BS been spoken about what
we’re doing people are searching for a
sense of place people are looking for
different things but really it’s all
about technique we lost complete sight
of what we’re doing now there are guys
in the world who are doing brilliant
things with food like granny Redzepi
Massimo Bottura damn barber all
unbelievable chefs but the seats of the
restaurants are limited on the price
purple it is extremely high so it really
is just the food for the elite I didn’t
want to do that I wanted to create a
business that did something different so
what did I do well they did everything I
started an online business nobody bought
anything I delivered hot food I
delivered cold food nobody bought
anything I created healthy food
unhealthy food vegan food I even created
a fry pie
nobody Kim I couldn’t understand why so
the middle of 2016 I raged home and I
realized it was too much noise at too
much noise going on
and I walked in and I packed up my
cookery book library it was 150 plus
books plucked in the car and took to the
charity shop I gave it all the way I
bend all the ideas and thoughts that I
had about what I knew about food and
chopped us it was time to move on
was time to find some silence I’ll
had nothing left floor and water so to
say to make noodles I looked at
eastwards and found Japan I realized
there’s a lot of similarities between us
people say there isn’t but your pounds
and islands we’re in Islands they have
seaweed
we have seaweeds they have pegs we have
pegs they have mushrooms we have
mushrooms our most famous import our
most famous food the potato there’s an
import and I was our stumbling block
that’s the thing that stopped us
progressing not a bit of colonialism on
the side and I figured it myself
if we didn’t have those things in our
life or but our history be it would
probably be very very different
so I said stuff up I’m gonna create
something that’s uniquely Northern Irish
or Irish just happens to be in a
Japanese package and that’s where the
rebellion came from I wanted to create
something that was new and different but
recognizable at the same time so how did
I go about that now to create a
fast-food restaurant that comes from
sustainable sources has proved not to be
successful lots of guys have traded dirt
and lots of guys have filled how was I
gonna be different how was I gonna
succeed I look to the on-demand economy
right and I said to myself what are
these guys doing that’s so different I
looked through the big players and the
food field Weatherspoon’s sub where’s
Domino’s McDonald’s all the enemies what
are they doing that’s so different what
they’re doing is they’re giving people
what they want so I’m like okay that’s
easy I’ll just do that
I’ll give people what they want and what
people want is it wants something fast
and they want something that’s value
maybe not nutritionally valuable maybe
nocturnes real money valuable but
perceived value I wanted to give people
something that was true value we also
looked that’s Amazon that’s a good
company to sort of take care lead from
isn’t it it’s super successful I know
the things that Jeff Bezos was saying
and he’s saying the customer is the hero
put the customer first reverse-engineer
the customer journey back and discover
what it is they want and then make that
thing and give it to them I mean not all
sounds really simple but in chef world
you create a dish and you assume
everybody’s gonna love it and then you
go to a restaurant and you eat that dish
you’re like great
mediocre they’ve never asked a question
what do you want we answer that question
so people wanted fast food I wanted to
use sustainable sources I wanted to do
fast ramen
I am started to read a book by Joel
Salatin who’s an American farmer and
he’s really gone against the Graham he’s
an amazing guy he’s baaack conventional
farming and he’s made a little money
doing it it hasn’t been very popular of
a lot of the big lobbyists in America
because he’s gone against everything
I’ve said but he starts everything with
the ground level the soil as great
phrase is nobody ever asks about the
earthworms I think I got some brilliant
thing so when I go ahead and talk to a
former I’m not looking to hear about how
he finished off his meat or how he can
get a higher yield using the latest
technology Oh Raffi’s organic I only
care about delicious and right if he
talks to me about biodiversity about
hedgerows of a clover but naturally a
current nitrogen in the soil I’m on
board so we find the guy that got called
Kenny greasy the county runs a pork
business in town reggae and he makes
amazing food but it didn’t always I
wasn’t always like that
used to be a conventional former raising
pegs in the conventional way hi bat
bells high housing bells high feed bells
etc but he wasn’t making any money and
then on top of that he had health
problems
his doctor advised him to eat a low-fat
white protein diet and it didn’t seem to
be working he’s a man of his own mind so
he bend the doctors advice
I started eight as omen traditionally
reared pork his health improved he
looked at his business and realized he
got a better yield and money terms from
these animals
not because of weird or anything but
because he didn’t have to spend money on
that bills and heisting bills and feed
those they were roaming about freely so
we been conventional for me I don’t work
from all I had to do was work out how do
I use doc guy and my fast food towards
the end of 2016 I stripped everything
away if it was not central to your
eating enjoyment it didn’t exist we
don’t even have a printed menu you can
find all of our stuff online you can
order it through delivery it’s all there
we don’t have beautiful concrete
lampshades which I wanted to get but
they don’t add any value to you and they
certainly don’t shed any light on the
real food that we’re doing these guys
are heretics and I stand alongside them
Joel Salatin Kenny Gracie and people
like them now we’re not on a hundred
percent sustainable food business but
we’re doing what we can
little by little we’re not letting the
drive for perfection be the enemy of
good we’re trying to win people over and
advertise our business one mouthful of
one bowl at a time Robert Stevens the
finery Geek Squad said
marketing has attacks on the
unremarkable and we do want to be
unremarkable we want to win this battle
one bowl of time thank you [Applause]
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