Gemma Austin is once again stirring up Belfast’s food scene with A Peculiar Tea, the restaurant that offers limited-edition afternoon tea and tasting menus inspired more often than not by films and books. Launched in 2023 following her success on Great British Menu, A Peculiar Tea has now moved into new digs within McConnell’s Distillery.
Austin is kicking things off with a multi-course afternoon tea that tips its witch’s hat to the musical and movie Wicked. A 10-course evening tasting menu will launch later this year. The 700 tickets released for the opening experience sold out in just 17 minutes. We spoke to Austin about how she creates her themed menus, her multi-sensory approach and why restaurants in Northern Ireland are at a disadvantage to those in other parts of the UK.
A Peculiar Tea is not a conventional restaurant concept…
No. We’re an adults-only restaurant that encourages people to come and explore their childhood. We use a lot of nostalgic flavours. I run the business with my mum and sisters. Our menus are always themed. We’re currently serving menus inspired by Wicked but past themes have included the books of Roald Dahl, with each dish linked to one of his stories, as well as broader ideas such as ‘forest’. A Peculiar Tea is a multi-sensory experience in that I’m always thinking about what guests see, hear and smell as well as taste and texture. I try to provoke all the senses because it makes people more likely to remember it. Another difference is that everything we do is ticketed. We do a maximum of 16 covers per seating, with four afternoon tea sittings per day on Saturdays and Sundays. We’ll soon launch the evening tasting menu on Friday and Saturday nights. The afternoon tea has been hugely popular – we sell out as soon as tickets go on sale.
Tell us more about your current Wicked-inspired menu
We have to be careful about the way we market it and obviously can’t use stills from the films, but the timing was perfect with Halloween around the corner. We don’t reveal too much about the food because it’s meant to be a surprise, but the afternoon tea offers a selection of savoury and sweet bites, including handmade activated charcoal bread and a peanut butter ganache choux bun with banana and miso caramel and dehydrated banana craquelin. The evening menu will feature 10 dishes, including a course that explores winter squash, with varieties such as Red Kuri, Green Hokkaido, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling and Black Futsu prepared in different ways including velouté, pickled and lacto-fermented.
It sounds pretty high-end
Yes. Just because it’s themed doesn’t mean it can’t be great quality. I’m not sure whether we would ever be eligible to win a Michelin star because it’s such an unusual project, but we still aspire to that standard. To this end, we’re using incredible produce. Our vegetables are grown for us by a female-led farm less than two hours from the restaurant and we source our beef from a farm that uses a rare native Northern Irish breed called Moiled Beef. They butcher one animal a week and only supply one other restaurant.
Tell us about your background
I started cooking quite late, at 22. I originally studied nursing at Queen’s University Belfast, but a back injury put me out of action for a while. During that time I did some soul-searching and realised I had no idea what I wanted to do. My mum is a chef by trade and suggested I try cooking, which had never been of interest to me. I ended up working in a few kitchens around Belfast, worked my way up quickly and completed a degree in culinary arts. Like a lot of young women in kitchens I was pushed into pastry, but I liked it. Pastry is a great place to start because following recipes and being meticulous is so important. Most of my savoury cooking has been self-taught through books – I have hundreds at home that I read constantly. I’ve also spent a lot of time travelling to eat in other people’s restaurants.
When did Great British Menu come knocking?
They got in touch with me during the pandemic after seeing my first A Peculiar Tea pop-up on social media. I thought it was a prank at first so I didn’t reply straight away. I did it for three years in a row and got through to finals week in my last year. It was a great experience that opened a lot of doors. But once I’d finished I knew I had to capitalise and put A Peculiar Tea into bricks and mortar. We opened the first site in Belfast city centre at the end of 2023, but we only had a two-year lease and the building wasn’t right. We have now reopened at McConnell’s Distillery within the historic Crumlin Road Gaol in the north of the city, after a hiatus of about a year. We also run a patisserie in Belfast called Mamo, named after my grandma.
Was Great British Menu an inspiration for how you approached A Peculiar Tea?
I actually had the idea before Great British Menu and mapped it out as part of my dissertation. I hadn’t really watched the show until I was on it. I’ve fallen completely in love with food and managed to combine it with my love of childish things.
What’s the restaurant scene in Belfast like at the moment?
Things have improved a lot over the past decade or so, largely thanks to the arrival of more chef-led restaurants. Ten years ago there were only a handful of places to go for a special occasion, but now we’re spoiled for choice. The scene is also quite diverse given Belfast is such a small city. But it’s an especially tough place to do business at the moment.
Why is that?
Everywhere in the UK is struggling but Northern Ireland also has to contend with disproportionately high rates. Business rates here are a devolved matter and therefore decided by the Northern Ireland Executive. There have been long periods when Stormont hasn’t been active, which means we haven’t been given the relief we need. On top of that, it’s a cost-sensitive market which makes operating at a high level difficult. Many people here don’t understand the economics of why it costs so much to deliver a high-quality menu made by skilled staff using great ingredients. It is hard to make money, but on the flipside the current conditions have improved the quality of what’s on offer because most people are doing it for the love of it rather than to make lots of money.