The sixth annual Hot Dinners Murphia List celebrating the best Irish chefs and restaurateurs in London has just been released.
Hot Dinners was founded in 2009 by brother and sister team Gavin and Catherine Hanly to write about London’s best restaurants.
The city’s Evening Standard calls it “the first place anyone goes to see where they should be eating dinner tonight”.
This year’s list was announced with a party at Gibney’s London, the new pub under Richard Corrigan’s Daffodil Mulligan restaurant, attended by those listed and some of the capital’s most influential food media.
This year’s list of the best and the brightest, sponsored by Grass-fed Irish beef, is the largest to date with 57 entries.
Those on the list are involved at every level of the restaurant and bar industry – from serving food and drink, to producing, cooking or writing about it.
The 2020 list includes four new Irish-led establishments on it.
A number of chefs have returned home to Ireland to open their own restaurants but there remains a steady stream of talent in the other direction.
Three new highly rated Irish-led restaurants launched in London in the twelve months since the last Murphia List: Anna Haugh’s Myrtle, Robin Gill’s Darby’s, and Richard Corrigan’s Daffodil Mulligan.
A fourth, Adrian Martin’s Wildflower, is to open shortly.
New entries on the list highlight the importance of family in the restaurant business.
Sisters Johanna and Aoife Ledwidge co-own the popular J + A Café in Clerkenwell.
Cormac Gibney is the son of prominent publican in Ireland Tony Gibney and now runs the eponymous Gibney’s London.
Sisters Siobhan, Marie and Catriona Peyton run the Peyton + Byrne restaurant group for their TV presenter brother Oliver. They have also recently opened a Camden café of their own, Roastery + Toastery.
Hot Dinners co-founder Catherine said: “With so much bad news around, it’s lovely to have something to celebrate. The links between Ireland and London’s food and drink scene have, if anything, become even closer.”
The Murphia List 2020
Chefs
Kenneth Culhane – The Dysart
Shauna Froydenlund – Marcus
Fiona Hannon -Bentley’s
Anna Haugh – Myrtle
Colin Kelly – 22 Grosvenor Square
Marguerite Keogh – The Five Fields
Simon Lamont – Seabird
Adrian Martin – Wildflower
Dave McCarthy -Scott’s
Aidan McGee -Corrigan’s Mayfair
Tom Mullin -Pizza Pilgirms
Patrick Powell – Allegra
Clare Smyth MBE – Core by Clare Smyth
Restaurateurs
Sinead Campbell – Bong Bong’s Manila Kanteen
Richard Corrigan – Corrigan Collection
John Devitt – Koya
Garrett Fitzgerald – Butchies
Robin and Sarah Gill – The Dairy, Counter Culture, Sorella, Darby’s and The Yard
Brian Hannon – Super 8 Restaurants inc Smoking Goat, Kiln, Brat
John King -Bowling Bird
Aoife and Johanna Ledwidge – J+A Cafe
Siobhan, Marie and Caitriona Peyton, Roastery + Toastery
David Moore – Pied a Terre
John Nugent – Green & Fortune
Oliver Peyton – Peyton & Byrne
Mark and Alan Wogan – Homeslice
Bars
Patrick Dardis – Young & Co.’s Brewery
Gearoid Devane – Trade
Cormac Gibney – Gibney’s
James Goggin – Empirical Spirits
Aaron Wall and Ciarán Smith – Homeboy
Front of House
Richie Corrigan -Daffodil Mulligan
Conor Daly -Allegra
Darren McHugh -The Ledbury
Oisin Rogers -The Guinea Grill
Garreth Walsh – Kimpton Fitzroy
Producers
Evin O’Riordain -The Kernel Brewery
Darragh O’Shea – O’Shea’s Butchers
Steve Ryan – 40FT Brewery