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About Chef Martin Bradley

Posted on 27/10/2007 by Martin Bradley

Martin Bradley has spent the last 9 years as co-owner and culinary creative force behind Brooklyn’s premier restaurant Henry Grattans. The establishment that spent half its incarnation as Lily’s has become a meeting place for some of New York’s most powerful entrepreneurs and their families, many of whom Chef Bradley considers his closest friends.

Although Martin’s direct immigration from Dublin, Ireland would seem to make his acceptance into the Bay Ridge elite a natural fact, it is more than Irish charm that has made him so successful.

Before establishing himself in Grattans, Chef Bradley lent his deft culinary skill to such demanding resorts and traveler hot spots in Montauk as the Surfside Inn and the Tipperary Inn, in East Hampton the Maidstone Arms and Café Max and in Florida to the Epping Forest Yacht Club. In these seasoned resorts Chef Bradley kept a very fussy clientele more than satisfied with his head turning classical dishes inspired by decidedly worldly cuisine. As one reviewer wrote of Bradley’s dishes, “one forkful and I understand the difference between a classic and a cliché.” Although one of Martin’s main missions has been to change the perception of Irish cuisine, his creations are more than a history lesson or a nostalgic look back. Bradley’s culinary aesthetic is constantly on the search for wider influences from within the US and abroad. His seaside stays have given him a strong command of seafood such as found in one of his signature dishes, The Montauk Martini, a dizzying array of seafood including lobster tail, mussels, shrimp and calamari served with a special Montauk broth in a Martini glass the size of your head.

Before coming to America Martin trained at the Dublin College of Catering and Hotel Management and plied his trade in some of Dublin’s finest hotel restaurants like the St. Paul du Chartes, The Maples Hotel and The Swan Hotel. There he mastered the hearty and haute of cooking beef and lamb to perfection. Something as deceptively simple as a rack of lamb can become a diner’s fondest memory when prepared by Chef Bradley.

Like all great chefs and restaurant mavericks, Martin is not satisfied to confine his creativity to the kitchen. For Grattans Martin was responsible for creating and recreating (when the mood struck him) the most enchanting and inviting decor for his diners. A talented visual artist, Martin adorns his restaurants with a mixture of inspired antique purchases, sculptures and paint techniques that keep his customers wondering how he will top himself next. Martin’s extra-artistic inclinations have led him to get involved in community theater projects as a set decorator and for Full Stop Films (an independent film company in which he is an partner) as set designer.

In addition Chef Bradley has competed in chef competitions such as the Parade des chefs, an annual event that draws some of New York’s top chefs. He has also won awards in Montauk for his famous New England Clam chowder snatching two years in a row the award for “Best Chowder South of New England.”

Chef Bradley’s passion for food and life are undeniable. With his wife Ann and their two children Kelly and Jack, Martin pursues these passions with equal vigor. And what can be said of his cuisine is equally true of his commitment to food, “Complete and familiar...it speaks to the soul.”