When Westport-born restaurateur Paul Cadden needed to assemble a kitchen team for his Saba restaurant, he embarked on a quest akin to that of gunfighter Yul Brenner’s mission to corral his cowboy crew in The Magnificent Seven.
Instead of traversing dusty Wild West towns, however, Paul hit the bustling streets of the Thai capital, eventually finding his team of seven culinary virtuosos in a waterfront restaurant on the Chao Phraya River in downtown Bangkok. With their skills and authentic knowledge of Thai cuisine, the best possible foundation was laid for Saba's magnificent culinary mission. The Chao Phraya River is an apt setting for someone whose own food journey began on the waterfront, albeit along the chillier, greyer coast of an Atlantic inlet in the West of Ireland.
A Journey to the East
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No reservations
The new Thai range for Simply Better brings the Saba restaurant experience to your dining table at home
hhy hyyh hyyh hyyh hyhy
The rich, exotic Thai flavours of Saba can now be found on the shelves of Dunnes Stores, giving foodies another delicious option from Southeast Asia
“I was just about to sign a lease on a place, but I needed to see if I could tempt back some of the guys I had worked with before,” he says. A man on a mission, Paul headed east on a mini-tour of Thailand and Vietnam seeking inspiration.
While on his travels, he reconnected with Chef Tao, a former colleague and long-time friend. “He’s a brother from another mother, as they say,” Paul says.
“I met Tao for lunch and mentioned to him that I was opening a place in Dublin and was going to need some chefs. He said, ‘let's meet for dinner at this outdoor café-restaurant on Chao Phraya River’. He used to love it there.
“And so, we were sitting there, Dad and myself, having a Singha beer and in walked Tao with six of the guys I had worked with before – all chefs. And they said, ‘we’re all coming’.”
And so Paul had assembled his magnificent seven in one fell swoop. It’s a moment he says he will never forget, and it took Saba from elusive pipe dream to concrete reality. Being able to bring that level of quality and expertise back to Dublin was a huge boost for the business. Chef Tao has since returned to Thailand, but Chef Peak, Chef Yo and many of the original seven still conjure up the beautiful crisp, fresh Thai dishes that keep customers returning for more.
It all started with an innocuous text from that great Irish food champion, Neven Maguire. Dunnes Stores was toying with the idea of adding Thai cuisine to its Simply Better range, and had been on the lookout for the right partner. Maguire is a regular visitor to Saba; he and Paul had known each other for years.
“Neven said, ‘I'm down tomorrow evening, I want to talk to you about something. Dunnes Stores are looking for a Thai range of sauces. Are you interested?’ And I said, wow… how would you even start?” Paul says.
The best place to start, intuitively enough, was Thailand, and once again Paul found himself on a plane to Bangkok. Head chef Tao had returned to his home country in 2018 after his own battle with illness, but thankfully had recovered after life-saving surgery in the US.
As it happened, one of Tao’s best friends in Thailand had a state-of-the-art food manufacturing plant in Bangkok. “Basically, Tao went to work with the manufacturers practically full-time, developing recipes for us, coming up with the sauces and tasting them.”
The result is a veritable feast for anyone who loves Thai cuisine. Inspired by Saba’s restaurant menu, the jars are labelled with chilli icons, ranging from mild to hot. There are large 350g jars of Simmer Sauces, including the ubiquitous Green Curry that customers love, which happily envelops chicken, lamb, beef or any vegetable selection you can muster. It is joined on the shelves by a Yellow Curry Simmer Sauce and a slightly hotter Red Curry Simmer Sauce.
Added to the roster are smaller 120g jars of Curry Pastes. The Green Curry Paste is akin to a Thai pesto, packed with green chillies, lemongrass, galangal and sweet basil. The Yellow Curry Paste marries turmeric with kaffir lime and mild spices, while the Red Curry Paste zings with red chillies and garlic.
SABA at home
NEVEN'S RECIPE FOR
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THAI FOOD RANGE
Eastern inspiration
Paul Cadden, owner of Saba, with his friend and creative collaborator Chef Tao
Savour the heartwarming delights of this family-run Irish dessert business, sprinkled with love and tradition
Thailand is an exotic, scenic country that Irish people love, and one of the things that draws people to that beautiful destination is its food. Often, people who dine at Saba are recreating a memory of an incredible Thai holiday through their taste buds.
Now, thanks to a brilliant new collaboration with Dunnes Stores, they can do so in the comfort of their own homes. Saba’s carefully curated range of curry pastes, wok sauces, simmer sauces and more are about to hit the shelves of Dunnes Stores.
Shards of happiness
Bon Chocolatiers' range for Simply Better includes a series of delicious, flavoured textured shards
LOW AND SLOW
Ready-to-use simmer sauces, bursting with fragrant fusions for an aromatic hit
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Simply Better range
Little nougats of genius
Hot seats
Saba remains one of Dublin's most beloved restaurants, known for pulling no punches when it comes to authentic Thai flavours
There are the Wok Sauces, in tall, elegant dark glass bottles: a multi-purpose Vegetable Wok Sauce, an Original Wok Sauce and Phad Thai Wok Sauce, a favourite among fans of Southeast Asian food, with its fresh chillies, prawns and squeeze of lime juice to enhance the flavour.
Also included in the range is that staple of curries around the world, Tamarind Paste, as well as a sweet Palm Sugar. Rounding off the range is the cold-pressed coconut milk that Paul is especially effusive about. “It’s like silk,” he enthuses. In fact, Neven Maguire was so “blown away” by this silky-smooth substance that he plans to use it to develop a mango panna cotta recipe, with the coconut milk substituting for cream.
When the products appear in a Dunnes Stores near you, allowing you to recreate your own authentic Thai experience at home, there’ll be no need to round up seven magnificent chefs. One will do — as long as the chef in question is armed with a little ammunition from the Saba range for Simply Better.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE COLOUR?
Classic curry pastes to suit every spice preference, made in the authentic
Thai tradition
Authentic FLOURISHES
For the true flavours of Southeast Asia, just add notes of sweet, sour, rich and creamy from Saba's range for Simply Better
have wok, will stir-fry
Speedy Thai dishes are a breeze with these tangy, spicy and sweet wok sauces. It's Bangkok in a bottle.
No reservations
The new Thai range for Simply Better brings the Saba restaurant experience to your dining table at home
When Westport-born restaurateur Paul Cadden needed to assemble a kitchen team for his Saba restaurant, he embarked on a quest akin to that of gunfighter Yul Brenner’s mission to corral his cowboy crew in The Magnificent Seven.
Instead of traversing dusty Wild West towns, however, Paul hit the bustling streets of the Thai capital, eventually finding his crack team of seven culinary virtuosos in a waterfront restaurant on the Chao Phraya River in downtown Bangkok. With their skills and authentic knowledge of Thai cuisine, the best possible foundation was laid for Saba's magnificent culinary mission. The Chao Phraya River is an apt setting for someone whose own food journey began on the waterfront, albeit along the chillier, greyer coast of an Atlantic inlet in the West of Ireland.
Paul is the eldest of three boys, whose parents were hoteliers. “My dad was the general manager of the Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar, then they went on to buy the Asgard in Westport. They were there for more than 25 years, so we grew up in the business,” he says.
Having been instilled with a passion for hospitality, Paul took the Shannon College of Hotel Management course, which included a year in the exclusive, five-star Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken, Switzerland, one of the world’s great hotels, built in 1865 and still going strong today. From there, he moved to the UK and continued learning his trade.
“In London I worked in Italian restaurants, I worked in French restaurants, I worked a day job in accounts and would moonlight as a chef in various kitchens,” Paul recalls. The day job in question came about thanks to the accountancy qualification he picked up while working for the Trusthouse Forte Group in the 1990s. His eminently sensible father had encouraged him to secure an accountancy qualification and given the volatility of the restaurant world, it was sound advice.
“I trained as a chef all the way up and kept my hand in it. I absolutely love the kitchen but I think, when you are front of house, general manager or owner you’re a jack of all trades. I love marketing. I love the business side of it. I'm obviously an accountant too, and that's great when you're going to the bank with a business plan.”
Following time spent in consultancy roles with various hotels and a three-month secondment with Diep le Shaker (which turned into a five-year stint), illness intervened, forcing Paul to take a year out. Once recovered and refreshed, he was soon on the lookout for a new challenge in a new location.
Thailand is an exotic, scenic country that Irish people love, and one of the things that draws people to that beautiful destination is its food. Often, people who dine at Saba are recreating a memory of an incredible Thai holiday through their taste buds.
Now, thanks to a brilliant new collaboration with Dunnes Stores, they can do so in the comfort of their own homes. Saba’s carefully curated range of curry pastes, wok sauces, simmer sauces and more are about to hit the shelves of Dunnes Stores.
Delectable imaginings
Paul is the eldest of three boys, whose parents were hoteliers. “My dad was the general manager of the Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar, then they went on to buy the Asgard in Westport. They were there for more than 25 years, so we grew up in the business,” he says.
Having been instilled with a passion for hospitality, Paul took the Shannon College of Hotel Management course, which included a year in the exclusive, five-star Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken, Switzerland, one of the world’s great hotels, built in 1865 and still going strong today. From there, he moved to the UK and continued learning his trade.
“In London I worked in Italian restaurants, I worked in French restaurants, I worked a day job in accounts and would moonlight as a chef in various kitchens,” Paul recalls. The day job in question came about thanks to the accountancy qualification he picked up while working for the Trusthouse Forte Group in the 1990s. His eminently sensible father had encouraged him to secure an accountancy qualification and given the volatility of the restaurant world, it was sound advice.
“I trained as a chef all the way up and kept my hand in it. I absolutely love the kitchen but I think, when you are front of house, general manager or owner you’re a jack of all trades. I love marketing. I love the business side of it. I'm obviously an accountant too, and that's great when you're going to the bank with a business plan.”
Following time spent in consultancy roles with various hotels and a three-month secondment with Diep le Shaker (which turned into a five-year stint), illness intervened, forcing Paul to take a year out. Once recovered and refreshed, he was soon on the lookout for a new challenge in a new location.