One Of Our Favourite Galway Restaurants Is Welcoming a Michelin-Star Chef This Weekend

Megan Cassidy

You’ve heard of Wife Swap… but what about Chef Swap?

The genius initiative from one of our fave Galway restaurants, Aniar, sees a host of different ‘guest chefs’ take over the kitchen to do their magic with local, in-season ingredients – the cornerstone of Aniar’s menu.

(We included Aniar in our 22 Reasons To Move To Galway list – read here)

This Friday and Saturday, 15 and 16 June, Michelin-star chef Christophe Dufau will collaborate with Aniar chef-patron JP McMahon on a unique menu of local ingredients.

In common with the style of food at Aniar, Christophe Dufau champions local and seasonal produce to create the innovative dishes at his Michelin star Les Bacchanales restaurant which is located in the city of Vence in Provence in the south of France.

For his Chef Swap at Aniar evening menus this weekend, expect a highly creative menu for which he will swap the flavours of Provence for ingredients from the West of Ireland.

Before opening his own restaurant, French-born Christophe worked at a number of acclaimed restaurants including three Michelin star La Côte d’Or in Saulieu, France and Danish restaurants Falsled Kro, Sønderho Kro and Jan Hurtigkarl & Co, as well as for renowned chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud in New York.

JP McMahon and Christophe Dufau at Aniar restaurant ahead of this weekend’s Chef Swap

This will be Christophe’s first time in Ireland:

“I’m looking forward to cooking your local products and experiencing a new culture. Having lived nine years in Denmark, there is a certain familiarity as I see similarities with other northern countries I have visited.”

During his visit to Galway this weekend, JP McMahon will take Christophe to visit a number of the region’s finest local food producers and on a tour of the Saturday Galway Market, where they will taste and take back to the Aniar kitchen the choicest local, in-season produce.

Christophe in the kitchen at Aniar

JP said,

“Chef Swap is a wonderful way of visiting chefs, including Christophe, to learn more about the produce we have here in Ireland.

As part of the experience, I travel with each chef to visit local producers and experience how the produce is harvested.”

Each of the Chef Swap at Aniar dinner menus follows the same menu format as the regular Aniar tasting menus – 6 courses at €65, 8 courses at €85, or 10 courses at €110.

The Christophe Dufau Chef Swap at Aniar menu is available on Friday the 15th and Saturday the 16th of June from 5.30pm until 9.30pm. Bookings can be made here.