A Peculiar success story for Great British Menu chef
A Great British Menu ‘graduate’ is now cooking up a storm in her own Belfast venue having previously road-tested her wares at the award-winning Hill Street Hatch food incubator.
Carryduff woman Gemma Austin, who wowed on last year’s edition of the hit BBC show, is the creative brain behind A Peculiar Tea, a truly distinctive fine dining restaurant in the converted Georgian townhouse on University Street that once housed Beatrice Kennedy’s.
Buoyed by her success on GBM and having been named as one of Ulster’s Best Chefs in the Irish Business Post, Gemma quit her job as head chef at Alexander’s in Holywood and struck out on her own with a venue whose decor and quirky culinary takes owe as much to the minds of Lewis Carroll Roald Dahl as Heston Blumenthal.
“Owning my own restaurant, A Peculiar Tea, enables me do something really creative especially with local food,” said the 29-year-old.
“A Peculiar Tea is the vehicle for an ambition I’ve had from my early years as a chef. It’s also based on my long held passion for sustainability.
“As a restaurant, we are incredibly passionate about sustainability and animal welfare. We operate a no waste policy in our kitchen and do not cook foods we believe are over-farmed or unnecessary to eat.
