Donal Skehan, Foodblogger and author of Good Mood Food

RONAN RYAN, RESTAURATEUR


"Last year, at the height of our troubles in Town Bar & Grill, Ross Lewis of Chapter One invited me and my girlfriend [Pamela Flood] for lunch one Thursday afternoon. We sat at the chef's table for five hours and he gave us the works, everything done as it should be. And with the food he gave me some very good advice. It was tough love, and some of it was hard to take, but at the end of the meal I walked out and said 'let's get on with it, do what has to be done'. I'll never forget it. I also ate the best fish of my life at the John Dory in New York."


GLENDA GILSON, TV PRESENTER AND MODEL


Earlier this year I was interviewing Gordon Ramsay for Exposé and I got to sit at the chef's table in his restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Powerscourt, which is basically in the kitchen, while he cooked for me. The food was amazing – scallops, lots of different kinds of fish and dishes I can't remember now – and he explained what I was eating and how he was preparing it. No joke, I had about eight courses. When he was finished cooking, he sat down with me and we had a glass of wine. I really liked him – great fun, and a brilliant storyteller, someone who likes a few drinks. I haven't been back since, but I'd like to, although I'd say it's an expensive night out!"


DONAL SKEHAN, FOODBLOGGER and AUTHOR of GOOD MOOD FOOD


One of the most memorable meals of this decade for me was on my first visit to South Africa. We spent the holiday travelling from Cape Town to Johannesburg and the food was amazing every where we went. Giant portion sizes were nothing out of the ordinary! On the first night we stayed in a game reserve where our cabin stood on the top of a hill and overlooked the most stunning views. We ate an amazing three-course meal which consisted of freshly barbecued meat straight off the open-air grill, delicious fresh salads, and mouth-watering desserts, all topped off nicely by one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever witnessed!


EAMONN O CATHAIN, CHEF AND AUTHOR of THE HARD TIMES COOKBOOK: GOOD FOOD ON A BUDGET


Usually, I'm to be found championing some little known puy-lentil outfit that'll cost you just a few euros, but not today. For the outstanding meal of the decade, it has to be the Michelin-starred Le Bec of Lyon. What can you say about Nicolas' astonishing food, this Breton who has dared to set up in unchanging Lyon, offering no Lyonnaiseries whatsoever and whose mission statement on his website begins "I do not think that French cuisine is the best in the world..."?


It isn't cheap but it is unforgettable. And innovative, satisfying, luscious, remarkable, smile-mongering and plain gob-smacking, pun intended. It has many wonders, not least the dazzling wine list, but chief among these has to be the massive scallops throned on a disc of sea-salt, the latter infused with squid ink or the triumphant rabbit roasted in tobacco leaves. There is no molecular cuisine here, thank God, but an array of pioneering brilliance that never loses sight of its primary function, that of a meal. So clever in its execution, one never feels sated until the last morsel, as though a switch were thrown to exclaim, enough!


Unmissable.


DIARMUID GAVIN, TV PRESENTER AND GARDENER


For me, the most memorable meal of the decade was on 7 February, this year. It was dinner in the Bouillon Racine in Paris to celebrate the 21st birthday of my niece, Natasha Keane, who is the daughter of my wife Justine's sister, Madeleine. She is studying law through French – imagine that! - in Paris and most of the guests were her fellow students. There were 21 people at the table, most of them Irish, and the room was filled with love and happiness. After a tough year (we had lost Justine and Madeleine's mother, Terry, not long before) it gave me great hope for the future to see so many good looking, confident, accomplished young Irish people together in a beautiful art-nouveau restaurant. We all admired the wonderful job Madeleine has done in bringing up her daughter. I don't remember anything about the food, and neither does Justine. "Not a sausage," she says.


CATHERINE FULVIO, CHEF


It has to be a new year's day lunch at my husband Claudio's Zia (Auntie) Lina's apartment in Palermo, with all of the cousins and their families – there must have been about 25 of us. The whole meal was prepared by the family in a small kitchen and it was amazing what was produced:


I recall antipasti: caponata (the Sicilian aubergine/olive stew); pasta con broccoli, and parmesan, pan-fried scallops on a bed of radicchio, orange & olive dressing; fillet of pork with a Sicilian orange sauce marinated lentils, olive oil and oregano; fennel shavings with a lemon and herb dressing, an d so much more.