At your service: Garry Hughes of The Shelbourne on keeping the plates spinning

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon tea, room service, private dining: the executive head chef at The Shelbourne in Dublin tells us what it takes to run such a diverse dining operation

Garry Hughes, executive head chef at the Shelbourne Hotel: ‘This is my dream job.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Can you ever have too much of a good thing? When it comes to afternoon teas, it turns out the answer is yes. Just ask Naas man Garry Hughes, executive head chef at The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, about the time he ate five afternoon teas in five different hotels in a single day.

“It was market research. I wanted to find out what the standard was like, to see where we stood next to ...