The more you talk to chefs, the more you realise how focussed they are on their work, almost to the point of obsession. Perhaps that very obsession is what makes a great chef, because obsession brings commitment and commitment brings attention to detail. When you think about it, apart from good food, what a restaurant needs is consistency. The food has to come out of kitchen faultlessly, plate after plate. To be a successful chef you can never take your eye off the ball.

Garrett Byrne is the chef de cuisine in Bruno's of Kildare Street and he's a good example of what I mean. This a man whose idea of a break on his night off is to go to a restaurant. I suggested that that might be a bit of a busman's holiday, but he was adamant - 'There's nothing I like more than eating out. I used to do it to see what other people were doing, now I do it for pleasure.' Although he's a generous tipper when he's eating out, the service charge annoys him. 'I can't think of anything else that you buy that gets a service charge added. I really don't see why it should apply to restaurants. I'll always tip well, 15% or more, but an automatically added service charge annoys me. It should be left up to the customer.' Couldn't have put it better myself.

He began his career in hotel management, spending the last six months of the course in the kitchens. 'I never left,' he laughed, 'from there to a hotel in Kilkenny and then on to London where I worked with Stephen Bull, who was a big influence on me. Probably the man with the best palate that I ever met.' The best chefs to work with, he told me, were the generous ones - the ones that shared their knowledge. 'With a lot of them, if they recognised a talent they'd push you that bit harder. That's how you learn.'

Having reached a stage in his career now where his skills are well-honed, I asked what dish he most likes to cook, or better still what would he consider his signature dish? 'No question. Sautéed foie gras served with my home-made black pudding and a fried egg.' A wonderful dish for sure, but why this one I wondered? 'My food is designed for eating, not for looking at or photographing. The first thing is that it has to taste good. Then I try to combine different textures on the plate. I like to have something crispy, something soft, something hard, something creamy. It adds interest to the dish. Put mashed potato with beef fillet and the textures are all the same, but put roast potatoes instead and the dish works better. That means that the garnish has to be chosen for each main course, we don't just throw on 'veg of the day' for every dish.' Despite his insistence that food is primarily for eating, he's keenly aware that most of us eat first with our eyes. A properly presented plate can make the appetite stir, just a badly presented one can put us off.

Since eating out is his hobby I asked what his favourite restaurant is. 'Alain Ducasse's restaurant in Paris. I'd love to get hold of the person who designed it. Obviously the food is wonderful, maybe not the best I've ever eaten, but the room and the service can't be faulted. It's the most elegant restaurant I've ever sat in.' And what did he eat? 'Foie gras. I'd eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. It's like sex; even when it's not good it's still great.'

I wondered how difficult he might be to please when he goes out to dine - is he difficult and demanding? 'Not at all, it's such a pleasure to have my dinner brought to me that I just eat the food, drink the wine and go home. I don't complain about little things, although if something's very wrong I will.' Isn't complaining something we're generally not very good at doing in Ireland? 'It's funny. If you bought a car and it broke down on the way home you'd complain to the garage. You wouldn't keep it and tell your friends never to go to that garage. It should be the same with a meal. If it's not right you should complain and get it fixed then and there. It's better for the customer and it's better for the restaurant.'

And the future? 'I think next year's going to be a hard one for the industry. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of restaurants closing.' Let's hope he's wrong.