John Howard owner of the renowned Le Coq Hardi restaurant in Ballsbridge Dublin and described as Ireland’s first celebrity chef has died at the age of 80 after a short illness. His establishment featured a private dining room frequented by Charles J Haughey and Terry Keane alongside figures such as Ben Dunne John Magnier Michael Smurfit Alex Ferguson Neil Young Mel Gibson and Frank Sinatra. During the Celtic Tiger period developers including Seán Dunne Paddy Kelly and Bernard McNamara were regular patrons.
Born in Fanore County Clare Howard trained at the Central Hotel and Jury’s Hotel before spells in the UK Sutton House Hotel and Whites of Wexford. He opened the original Le Coq Hardi in 1978 at the Pembroke Hotel later acquiring an adjacent Georgian building for a relaunched venue with private dining and a cellar of fine French wines. He closed the restaurant in 2001 and later worked as a food consultant and wine sourcer.
Howard was a hands-on proprietor who greeted guests enjoyed fine wines and two Cuban cigars daily collected antiques particularly old oil lamps and followed horseracing. He expressed admiration for Haughey’s standards and style despite controversies. Howard is survived by his wife Catherine daughter Karen and brothers PJ and Patrick.
As John Howard once shared “I’m a chef first, but I’m also a businessman. The great chefs sometimes are not great businessmen. They get carried away with the ego, and the celebrity and the Michelin star thing and turn a blind eye to what’s important, to running a business, and you’re in trouble.”
“A meal in a restaurant should be full of ceremony, glamour and pomp.”
