When your bosses include Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing and U2 your career has gone pretty well. 

And now chef Paul Carroll is bringing those experiences – and a whole lot more – to his new job as executive chef at the restaurants of Grand Cayman Beach Suites.

“I started cooking at 16 in Dublin at the Clarence Hotel, at the time one of the best five stars in Dublin and owned by U2 so it was quite a trendy, happening place,” recalls Paul.

“U2 used to come into the kitchen; they were very good friends with the hotel’s executive chef, Michael Martin. Bono used to come into the kitchen two or three times a week when he was in Dublin and chat to the lads. He was very interested in food and would always come up and ask you what you were working on.”

At 19, Paul obtained Gordon Ramsay’s number from a contact who had worked with him and a month later found himself in London.

“He said to come down and have a trial but I told him I was over in Dublin and he said, ‘don’t worry then, just come down and start [work] so there I was in Petrus.

“That was Gordon’s second restaurant and he was partners with Marcus Wareing. I spent three and a half years there then went on to Royal Hospital Road, Gordon’s three Michelin-star restaurant.”

All this gave him French-classic influence, said the chef, plus work ethic and team discipline and manners. The stint at Royal Hospital Road added administration and management. Working with the slightly more quirky Wareing was another great education.

“He is a real chef’s chef; great on the stove, to watch this guy work is amazing. He puts his personal twist on things and introduces British flavours with French flair. He has the best restaurant in London right now.”

The Ramsay phenomenon 

As for the Gordon Ramsay phenomenon, it’s amazing how much the chef, businessman and television star can keep running, says Paul.

“His three-star restaurant is his three-star restaurant; walking into that kitchen is phenomenal. It is a very serious restaurant.

“People see Gordon on television and ask, ‘is he like that in real life?’. Well, he is. That is his restaurant, his bread and butter. That is his standards; it has his name over it. On TV he might gob off about this, that and the other but this is his restaurant which made his name. It was an experience you could never imagine having as a chef; you might dream of it but I could not have asked for better places to learn.”

Two and a half years later, via a stint at a chateau hotel in Jersey, Paul moved back to Ireland to a restaurant in Kildare as head chef of a fine dining restaurant then opening a restaurant for Gordon Ramsay at the Ritz-Carlton.

Cayman via Dubai 

Paul arrives in Cayman via a stint in the UK looking after four Von Essen properties and working at the pre-opening of a hotel on man-made island Jumeira Palm in Dubai.

He says that all these experiences will assist him as he oversees a revamp of the three restaurants in Grand Cayman Beach Suites.

As well as tweaking the menu of Hemmingway’s and meeting with suppliers on-island to try and source regular supplies of consistent, fresh ingredients, the chef says he will look at the talent already on board.

“We’re lucky here; we have some Indian guys and Filipino guys in the kitchen and they will be encouraged to come up with aspects or ideas; they are a resource we have.”
Bamboo is also getting a revamp and finally attention will turn to the Britannia Restaurant.

And though the chef has been working lengthy hours to get up to speed  he says he’s enjoying snorkelling when he finds a minute and intends to get out diving as soon as he possibly can.