Longford chef on switching career from credit control and her grounding in food in Brazil

Moving from working in credit control to being a chef may seem like a huge career change but Patrice Byrne made that transition seamlessly a decade ago and she believes her background and adaptability has been a big benefit.

The mother of three worked in the kitchen at Skelly's Bar and Restaurant in Ballymahon occasionally when she was needed from 1996 up until 2015, which she runs with her husband Pat and his brother Peter.

Patrice, who grew up in Sao Paulo in Brazil, said at that time she was working as a credit controller at RBK Accountants in Athlone and they had a lot of problems getting chefs.

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"I always kind of helped in my spare time and eventually I gave up RBK and I came full-time to Skelly's.

"The thing I brought from the credit control is you must be very organised, you have to fact check everything in terms of orders and prices and you are dealing with people all of the time as a credit controller and you need to know how to do that or else they won't pay you."

Patrice did not go to any cookery school, however, she has benefitted from decades of practical experience.

"I like to eat and and I knew what I liked and what I didn't like from going around eating in pubs in Ireland and I just thought we could do more."

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Patrice said she purposely avoided the traditional style pub style fish and chips and burger fare.

"I will always have fresh fish, I have a great rep and he is very honest with me, he will tell me for example the salmon or the cod is lovely this week."

Patrice, who places a big emphasis on herbs and flavour at Skelly's, said her priority has always been on quality and getting the right price for them and customers.

"It does not matter if a customer is paying €30 for a burger or our price which is €18 they should still get good quality and a lot of Michelin star restaurants have to charge that because they will have six or seven people working in the kitchen and their wages are astronomical.

"We have John Stone ribeyes, that is really high quality meat but we don't charge Michelin prices because it's only three of us in the kitchen."

Patrice said most of the meats at Skelly's are locally sourced, they get their pork from Herterichs Butchers and they grow their own vegetables or buy them locally.

They employ two full time staff members on a full time basis and four or five part-time chefs.

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Patrice recalled everything is centred around food in Brazil in terms of social gatherings and family occasions and her earliest memory was washing up while her mother and aunt chatted and prepared meals, which gave her a great grounding.

"I prepare all of the sauces, everything is done by me and they (the other chefs) are there to do the service so I can have a break, but at the same time I will do the waitressing and when I am doing that I can see the quality of the food and the service around the bar.

Patrice stated they need to work effectively as a team in the kitchen, they always have a vegan meal special, all of their sauces are gluten free and a lot of their customers love their stir fry.

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"We can make it as spicy or as mild as you want but it's a very different taste and it is lovely and you can have that dish as a vegetarian or with prawns, chicken or beef so it's a very flexible dish.