Barry Cummins who will launch his new menu at The Silly Goose next Wednesday.

Silly Goose on the menu

The Silly Goose is set to launch its new lunch and evening food range next week.

The new casual dining experience will feature American diner-style food, boasting generously sized portions.

Preceding the launch will be On the Ball, a ticket-only pre-World Cup analysis conversation with Ronan O’Gara and Alan Quinlan in the Silly Goose on Monday 16 September at 7pm.

The Silly Goose will then launch its new lunch and evening menu on Wednesday 18 September.

The man behind the new venture is chef Barry Cummins. Barry’s culinary career began in 2004 when, on the brink of joining the navy, he answered an advertisement looking for cooks to work in an Irish bar in Germany. Left to his own devices, Barry was able to experiment and develop his own cooking style.

On his time in Germany, Barry said: “German food is quite bland, to be honest. A lot of pork and schnitzel and breaded food. What I was doing was putting an Irish twist on it. I would be making traditional Irish food using German ingredients.”

After thriving in Germany, Barry then moved to Spain, where he cooked locally sourced seafood near the coast. After returning home, he completed several culinary upskilling courses before he entered the commercial food industry with such brands as Cully and Sully, Dunnes Stores and Green Saffron.

“It’s international cuisine that drives me. International street food. I’ve done a lot of travelling through Europe. All that has an influence. Coming from the commercial side, working with retailers is where I really honed my skills for developing dishes and recipes, global cuisine,” continued Barry.

He is passionate about bringing high quality clean-labelled food to the plate at a great price: “I knew I could put my twist on this with a good price point and do big diner-style American portions at a reasonable price.”

Grilled sandwiches, burgers, nachos and wings will all feature as part of the new culinary commission.

A strong part of Barry’s gastronomic background, hailing from his commercial experience, are pies and savouries which also feature on the menu. Working alongside his father, Barry has been adapting a recipe inherited from his grandmother to develop a special trio of pies. He hopes the pies will be the stand-out dishes on the menu, offering cottage pie, chicken, leak and cheddar pie and a seafood pie and hopes to expand the range in the future.