HE admits to having already fallen in love with Belfast - and Michelin-starred French celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli was back in the city yesterday to say 'je t'aime to his new ‘grand chef’ Jim Mulholland, previously of the Ballyrobin Country Lodge.
Mulholland will head up the kitchen at ‘Novelli at City Quays’, a landmark 112-seater restaurant within the 188-bedroom AC Hotel by Marriott, due to open April within Belfast Harbour's £250 million City Quays 2 waterfront development.
"I just love Jim. He's an absolute gentleman," Novelli gushes with typical Gallic flair.
"I knew from the moment I meet him in 2016, when he cooked for me at the Ballyrobin and I met him at the Balmoral Show, that he was the one for me," he told the Irish News.
"He made a memorable impact both with his food and his personality, and I know he'll inspire and lead our kitchen with style and confidence."
Novelli's first business venture anywhere in Ireland offers food connoisseurs an exclusive brasserie Mediterranean-style menu with all the flair associated with the popular French chef, who has spent the last decade running his training academy and raising his three sons, aged nine, five and 18 months.
His waterfront eaterie, which will enjoy unparalleled views across Belfast Lough, optimised by a double-height glazed façade and open-air terrace, will employ 30 staff, including 10 chefs, and securing the Novelli name represents an outstanding coup for Belfast and Northern Ireland’s hospitality and tourism offering.
"I live close to Luton Airport and can be door-to-door in 90 minutes, which is quicker than it often takes from home into central London, so be assured I'll spent a lot of time in Belfast," added Novelli, who has been been overseeing the fit-out and finish of the custom-designed kitchen and dining room at his restaurant.
“This is a hugely exciting time with the opening of my first restaurant in Ireland now firmly in sight.
"Being a Pisces, I love the water, and location is everything to me, and our setting in this design-led lifestyle AC Hotel is just stunning.
"I'm proud to be associated with a city enjoying such tremendous international recognition and goodwill, and equally delighted to have such an extraordinary man and fantastic team leader as Jim Mulholland as my head chef.
"He fully shares my vision for ‘Novelli at City Quays’ and will be instrumental in helping me deliver it. Our ambition is to provide customers with an authentic Mediterranean dining experience whilst at the same time paying homage to our Belfast location with produce sourced all local, from the land and the sea."
Novelli left school at the age of 14 to work in a bakery and later became a personal chef to Elie de Rothschild.
He moved to Britain in 1983 and went on to run Keith Floyd’s Maltster’s Arms in Devon. He was awarded a Michelin star four times between 1991 and 2000, the first coming while he was chef patron of Gordleton Mill in Lymington, Hampshire.
