Exclusive: Former Arzak chef Vincent Crepel to open restaurant at luxury Cork hotel

The French chef Vincent Crepel will open his first solo venture outside his native France next month after being taken on by the prominent hotelier Loh Lik Peng.

Vincent will open Terre, a modern restaurant at the five-star Castlemartyr estate in County Cork, Ireland, in mid-September, and will create an ‘experience rooted in French cooking, alive with the bright flavours of Asia, while drawing upon abundance from the Irish terroir and sea’.

CODE was told the restaurant will use ingredients from the ‘bountiful Irish larder’, and Vincent intends to draw on his experiences in France, the Basque country, and parts of Asia to produce menus worthy of any destination hotel.

Dinner will begin with aperitifs overlooking the estate’s landscaped gardens, before a tour of the kitchen, dry-aging fridges and fermentation rooms will make way for champagne and snacks.

Vincent, who grew up in the French Pyrenees and trained in the Basque country, worked at Arzak in San Sebastian, Hotel de Ville Crissier in Switzerland, and with Andre Chiang in Singapore before opening his own restaurant, Porte12, in Paris.

He had never visited Ireland before teaming up with Loh, and said: ‘From the first moment I saw the green fields of Ireland surrounded by its spectacular coastline, I have felt a connection with the land and its people, drawn energy from the sea, and inspiration from its bounty.

‘At Terre, my hope is to bring you on a special journey, and to share with you my very personal vision of a modern restaurant experience.’

This is undoubtedly an ambitious project. Dublin-born Loh, the CEO of Unlisted Collection, is behind hotels in the likes of Sydney, Shanghai, and London, and counts Michelin-starred restaurants in his portfolio. Arguably the most successful to date is Da Terra, at the Town Hall Hotel in East London.

His location in County Cork, the Castlemartyr Resort, officially opened to guests in 2008, and has storied history that includes Strongbow, Walter Raleigh, and the Knights Templar.

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