Nick Munier

Nick Munier was born on 4th August 1967 in Kent to parents Elaine and Jean. He has one older brother, Pascal. Nick helped his parents in their guesthouse from a young age, which gave him a good background in service. After leaving school at 16 with a basic qualification of GCSE’s, Nick followed catering school with a stint in Germany. When Nick returned from Germany he secured a job with the Roux brothers in London. He was only 18 and was working in one of the most famous restaurants in the UK. In total he stayed for two years, learning and honing his craft.

In 1991 he joined the K Club as Restaurant manager, in the hotels Michelin starred restaurant, spending a year there before receiving a call to come for interview as an assistant restaurant manager in Marco Pierre White’s 2-Michelin star restaurant The Hyde Park in London. Nick spent almost a decade working with Marco on and off, with time spent managing many of his restaurants, including The Hyde Park, The Oak Room, The Criterion Brasserie, and The Belvedere, Holland Park.

A call from chef Conrad Gallagher, who had just opened a restaurant called Peacock Alley, led to a return to Dublin. Nick only lasted two weeks, as Conrad had forgotten to tell him that he actually had an existing restaurant manager. However one good thing came out of this short spell in Dublin-Nick met his future wife Denise McBrien from Clondalkin. In 2002 Nick moved back to Ireland to work as manager for one year in Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud. The Clarence Hotel, Dublin appointed Nick as their Food and Beverage manager in 2003-2006.

Nick Spent 2006 & 2007 working in a consultancy capacity for the start up of many new projects in Ireland, including “The Village at Lyons” for Tony Ryan, “Bon Appetit” in Malahide, “Ivans” in Howth, “The Exchange Restaurant” at the Westgrove hotel in Clane, Co. Kildare and “One Pery Square” in Limerick.

In 2007 Marco Pierre White asked Nick if he would be interested in being a maitre d on camera on his new TV show Hell’s Kitchen. Nick agreed, thinking he would barely be featured on camera. However once the series went to air and achieved six million viewers Nick was soon getting recognised out and about on the street. When Hell’s Kitchen finished, Nick returned to Dublin and took a job at l‘Ecrivain, although he left after a short period.

Nick had been toying with the idea of opening the restaurant for around two years, and in July 2009 that dream finally came true when Nick, along with his business partner Stephen Gibson (who he worked with at l’Ecrivain) opened their restaurant “Pichet” on Trinity St. Pichet was an instant success. Within 6 weeks they were breaking even. Within 6 months of opening Pichet was awarded a Bib Gourmand by the esteemed Michelin Guide. It continues to do very well and has secured a loyal clientele.

Nick’s second great passion is abstract art and has been painting in this form for the last 10 years. He has held 3 solo and 2 group exhibitions in Ireland and 2 group exhibitions in England.  Nick and Denise married in 2003 and had their reception in the The Clarence hotel. They have three sons, Conan (14), Luc (6), and Alex (3). During rare time off from work, Nick likes to take the kids to McDonalds and the cinema. They live in Ballinteer in South Dublin.