In 2011, a restaurant on Galway’s Westend quietly opened its doors. The vision was to serve locally produced ingredients in a casual, non-fussy setting and was aptly named Kai – the Maori word for food. Today, it’s not just a restaurant – it’s a community hub and a Galway institution.
The restaurant is owned and operated by Kiwi-born chef, Jess Murphy, and her husband, David. The pair have always complemented each other: Dave is supremely hospitable and takes to front-of-house management like a duck to water, while Jess is always at her best in the kitchen; her creativity expressed in Kai’s whimsical menu items. They also operate Hapi Bakery, which is the branch of the business responsible for Kai’s breads and well-loved cake table.
Most chefs incorporate local ingredients into their menus today – it isn’t just good for the local economy; it’s good marketing to be able to put a producer’s name next to a menu item. But at a time when menu fraud (saying you use a local ingredient when you really use a generic, less expensive version) is rife within the industry, Jess and Dave have always gone two steps further than simply buying local produce. Over the years, they have championed Irish farmers and have given back to their local community at every opportunity.
Farming friends
Irish Country Living recently met with the pair at An Garraí Glas farm in Inverin, Co Galway. Operated by farmer Aonghus Ó Coistealbha, An Garraí Glas is one of Jess’ main vegetable suppliers. As these producer relationships have developed over Kai’s span of existence, Jess has been able to plan carefully with growers, provide them with positive feedback and encourage them to continue to scale.
“I think farmers are very humble and I buzz out [get excited] over a good vegetable,” she says. “Like the potatoes and carrots from An Garraí Glas – I’ve taken them to Sweden for pop-ups, and the diners talk about nothing else but how amazing those carrots taste. It’s great to be able to come home and tell them this and say, ‘I need you to grow more of this for me.’ Aengus’ rainbow carrots are phenomenal – they are so naturally sweet, we use them in our carrot cake and can take out most of the sugar. It’s great to see how people work with the land; how they’re connected to the land. That’s Ireland, for me.”
Jess credits chef Kevin Thornton – whom she worked under at the two Michelin Starred Thornton’s Restaurant in Dublin before moving to Galway – for helping her make connections with the foods they were preparing and the producers who supplied them.
“He taught me who did apples, who did pig’s head and feet, who was still doing wild salmon – I was really lucky,” she says. “Then when I came to Galway and went to the market, there were a load of other people producing things, but there was a disconnect between growers and restaurants. I was lucky to be working in Ard Bia at the time; we were able to set up accounts with local farmers for direct supply into the restaurant.”
Jess Murphy from Kai at An Garraí Glas veg farm in Inverin, Co Galway. / Sean Lydon
Since then, Jess and Dave have proudly called Galway home, though neither are technically Galway natives. The community they have built around Kai means everything to them, both personally and professionally.
“Since Dave is front-of-house, he always has the scoop,” Jess says. “He’ll tell me ‘John says his lilacs are in season again if you want to make lilac sugar,’ or ‘the Gilmore’s have apples and Petra down the road does, too.’
“We’re trying to keep a circular economy going; that’s what it’s all about. A community happens naturally when you’re doing business like this.”
The Kai Cookbook
When you take this into account, it makes perfect sense why Jess’ latest cookbook, published by Nine Bean Rows Books and on shelves from 23 September, is considered a love letter to Galway’s West End.
In fact, that is literally the title of the book: The Kai Cookbook: A Love Letter to the West of Ireland. The book is more than a love letter, though, as it brings you through the Celtic seasons, starting at Imbolc and ending with Samhain, sharing the kind of recipes you’d expect from Jess, who has travelled the world but will always love her home city most.
Galway-style Kachapuri takes a cheesy Georgian-style bread and utilises local St Tola feta-style cheese while Lúnasa Larb is her take on a traditional Southeast Asian meat dish using Co Clare mince. You’ll also find some classic Kai menu items in the book, like their iconic fish fingers “When I die, these fish fingers will be etched onto my gravestone, listed on rip.ie and broadcast on Galway FM death notices,” Jess writes in their intro.
Jess jokingly refers to the Kai Fish Fingers as "The myth;the fave;the curse" because she put them on the menu as a joke and has never been able to take them off.
Besides a love letter to her community, the book is, equally, an ode to Jess’ background and her journey as a chef.
She brings the reader through her rural New Zealand upbringing in Wairoa (which included making homemade bullets for shooting ducks with her father) and openly shares the fact that she was “kindly asked to leave” school at the age of 15.
“Luckily my aunty worked in the local school office so I could get a legal certificate,” she explains. “I did that and then I washed dishes full time to pay my rent until I was 18 and old enough to go to college. I got accepted into a culinary programme. I was just mental at that age. I knew I was going to be a chef, and I didn’t care about anything that might stand in the way of that.”
It’s interesting to balance Jess’ early experiences with what she has accomplished as an adult, obviously having reached her childhood goal of becoming a chef. In recent years, she has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); visiting some of the largest refugee camps in the Middle East and has also supported refugees and newcomers here at home with pop-ups, fundraisers and encouragement.
She has received numerous accolades and awards for her culinary skill, humanitarian efforts and her approach to social gastronomy.
With so many achievements under her belt, you would think being a public figure in Irish food would come easily for Jess. She says that outside of cooking and using her platform to help others, however, she often suffers insecurities, including around public speaking.
“I saw a sports psychologist for a year to learn how to be confident and talk on stage,” she recalls, laughing. “John McKenna [McKenna’s Guides] can vouch for this – once, he caught me running off-stage because I was so nervous my legs literally weren’t working. He was like, ‘Where are you going? Get out there. Just introduce yourself, that’s the scariest part.’ He dragged me through that day.
The Kai Cookbook: A Love Letter to the West of Ireland will be available to purchase from 23 September.
I started seeing Tony O’Regan [the sports psychologist] and I think I was his first-ever non-athlete, which is hilarious – this bigger woman in her 40s seeing a sports psychologist! He used to make all these recordings, and I would listen to them on the way down to Electric Picnic. They’d be like, ‘You did all the work, you’re more than qualified, you’re just as good as everyone else on that field’ [the recordings were meant for hurlers]. And that was it. That’s how I got out of that.”
Despite the public persona and increased confidence, everything Jess does goes back to her Westend community. It would be wrong to write about her new book without highlighting her favourite neighbour, who receives several devotional mentions: Ernie Deacy, who operates Ernie’s Fruit & Veg right next door to Kai.
Local support
Ernie has been a constant source of support and inspiration for Jess, and if you follow her on social media, you will often see posts dedicated to him and the produce he sells.
“The book should just be called Ernie’s,” she laughs. “Ernie is just my favourite. There are no greengrocers left in Ireland; they are few and far between. You notice when they’re not there.”
Ultimately, she believes there needs to be more a connection between Irish chefs and their local communities but also understands the challenges.
“A lot of chefs don’t own their own restaurant – they only control the food cost percentages,” she explains. “There’s no money in any restaurant right now. But at the end of the day, if I didn’t buy from these [local producers] who have been my family all these years, what would be so special about Kai?
“I wouldn’t have the heart to cook with generic stuff that gets dumped outside the front of your door.”
See kairestaurant.ie
In 2011, a restaurant on Galway’s Westend quietly opened its doors. The vision was to serve locally produced ingredients in a casual, non-fussy setting and was aptly named Kai – the Maori word for food. Today, it’s not just a restaurant – it’s a community hub and a Galway institution.
The restaurant is owned and operated by Kiwi-born chef, Jess Murphy, and her husband, David. The pair have always complemented each other: Dave is supremely hospitable and takes to front-of-house management like a duck to water, while Jess is always at her best in the kitchen; her creativity expressed in Kai’s whimsical menu items. They also operate Hapi Bakery, which is the branch of the business responsible for Kai’s breads and well-loved cake table.
Most chefs incorporate local ingredients into their menus today – it isn’t just good for the local economy; it’s good marketing to be able to put a producer’s name next to a menu item. But at a time when menu fraud (saying you use a local ingredient when you really use a generic, less expensive version) is rife within the industry, Jess and Dave have always gone two steps further than simply buying local produce. Over the years, they have championed Irish farmers and have given back to their local community at every opportunity.
Farming friends
Irish Country Living recently met with the pair at An Garraí Glas farm in Inverin, Co Galway. Operated by farmer Aonghus Ó Coistealbha, An Garraí Glas is one of Jess’ main vegetable suppliers. As these producer relationships have developed over Kai’s span of existence, Jess has been able to plan carefully with growers, provide them with positive feedback and encourage them to continue to scale.
“I think farmers are very humble and I buzz out [get excited] over a good vegetable,” she says. “Like the potatoes and carrots from An Garraí Glas – I’ve taken them to Sweden for pop-ups, and the diners talk about nothing else but how amazing those carrots taste. It’s great to be able to come home and tell them this and say, ‘I need you to grow more of this for me.’ Aengus’ rainbow carrots are phenomenal – they are so naturally sweet, we use them in our carrot cake and can take out most of the sugar. It’s great to see how people work with the land; how they’re connected to the land. That’s Ireland, for me.”
Jess credits chef Kevin Thornton – whom she worked under at the two Michelin Starred Thornton’s Restaurant in Dublin before moving to Galway – for helping her make connections with the foods they were preparing and the producers who supplied them.
“He taught me who did apples, who did pig’s head and feet, who was still doing wild salmon – I was really lucky,” she says. “Then when I came to Galway and went to the market, there were a load of other people producing things, but there was a disconnect between growers and restaurants. I was lucky to be working in Ard Bia at the time; we were able to set up accounts with local farmers for direct supply into the restaurant.”
Jess Murphy from Kai at An Garraí Glas veg farm in Inverin, Co Galway. / Sean Lydon
Since then, Jess and Dave have proudly called Galway home, though neither are technically Galway natives. The community they have built around Kai means everything to them, both personally and professionally.
“Since Dave is front-of-house, he always has the scoop,” Jess says. “He’ll tell me ‘John says his lilacs are in season again if you want to make lilac sugar,’ or ‘the Gilmore’s have apples and Petra down the road does, too.’
“We’re trying to keep a circular economy going; that’s what it’s all about. A community happens naturally when you’re doing business like this.”
The Kai Cookbook
When you take this into account, it makes perfect sense why Jess’ latest cookbook, published by Nine Bean Rows Books and on shelves from 23 September, is considered a love letter to Galway’s West End.
In fact, that is literally the title of the book: The Kai Cookbook: A Love Letter to the West of Ireland. The book is more than a love letter, though, as it brings you through the Celtic seasons, starting at Imbolc and ending with Samhain, sharing the kind of recipes you’d expect from Jess, who has travelled the world but will always love her home city most.
Galway-style Kachapuri takes a cheesy Georgian-style bread and utilises local St Tola feta-style cheese while Lúnasa Larb is her take on a traditional Southeast Asian meat dish using Co Clare mince. You’ll also find some classic Kai menu items in the book, like their iconic fish fingers “When I die, these fish fingers will be etched onto my gravestone, listed on rip.ie and broadcast on Galway FM death notices,” Jess writes in their intro.
Jess jokingly refers to the Kai Fish Fingers as "The myth;the fave;the curse" because she put them on the menu as a joke and has never been able to take them off.
Besides a love letter to her community, the book is, equally, an ode to Jess’ background and her journey as a chef.
She brings the reader through her rural New Zealand upbringing in Wairoa (which included making homemade bullets for shooting ducks with her father) and openly shares the fact that she was “kindly asked to leave” school at the age of 15.
“Luckily my aunty worked in the local school office so I could get a legal certificate,” she explains. “I did that and then I washed dishes full time to pay my rent until I was 18 and old enough to go to college. I got accepted into a culinary programme. I was just mental at that age. I knew I was going to be a chef, and I didn’t care about anything that might stand in the way of that.”
It’s interesting to balance Jess’ early experiences with what she has accomplished as an adult, obviously having reached her childhood goal of becoming a chef. In recent years, she has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); visiting some of the largest refugee camps in the Middle East and has also supported refugees and newcomers here at home with pop-ups, fundraisers and encouragement.
She has received numerous accolades and awards for her culinary skill, humanitarian efforts and her approach to social gastronomy.
With so many achievements under her belt, you would think being a public figure in Irish food would come easily for Jess. She says that outside of cooking and using her platform to help others, however, she often suffers insecurities, including around public speaking.
“I saw a sports psychologist for a year to learn how to be confident and talk on stage,” she recalls, laughing. “John McKenna [McKenna’s Guides] can vouch for this – once, he caught me running off-stage because I was so nervous my legs literally weren’t working. He was like, ‘Where are you going? Get out there. Just introduce yourself, that’s the scariest part.’ He dragged me through that day.
The Kai Cookbook: A Love Letter to the West of Ireland will be available to purchase from 23 September.
I started seeing Tony O’Regan [the sports psychologist] and I think I was his first-ever non-athlete, which is hilarious – this bigger woman in her 40s seeing a sports psychologist! He used to make all these recordings, and I would listen to them on the way down to Electric Picnic. They’d be like, ‘You did all the work, you’re more than qualified, you’re just as good as everyone else on that field’ [the recordings were meant for hurlers]. And that was it. That’s how I got out of that.”
Despite the public persona and increased confidence, everything Jess does goes back to her Westend community. It would be wrong to write about her new book without highlighting her favourite neighbour, who receives several devotional mentions: Ernie Deacy, who operates Ernie’s Fruit & Veg right next door to Kai.
Local support
Ernie has been a constant source of support and inspiration for Jess, and if you follow her on social media, you will often see posts dedicated to him and the produce he sells.
“The book should just be called Ernie’s,” she laughs. “Ernie is just my favourite. There are no greengrocers left in Ireland; they are few and far between. You notice when they’re not there.”
Ultimately, she believes there needs to be more a connection between Irish chefs and their local communities but also understands the challenges.
“A lot of chefs don’t own their own restaurant – they only control the food cost percentages,” she explains. “There’s no money in any restaurant right now. But at the end of the day, if I didn’t buy from these [local producers] who have been my family all these years, what would be so special about Kai?
“I wouldn’t have the heart to cook with generic stuff that gets dumped outside the front of your door.”
See kairestaurant.ie
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