Irish chef gunned down outside his US restaurant had spoken about his granny igniting cooking passion
Dad-of-two Shaun Brady was shot multiple times after trying to stop a teenage gang from stealing a car outside his Brady & Fox eaterie
The Irish chef gunned down outside his US restaurant had spoken often of his love for his homeland, and how his granny ignited his cooking passion.
Dad-of-two Shaun Brady was shot multiple times after trying to stop a teenage gang from stealing a car outside his Brady & Fox eaterie.
He was taking out rubbish to bins on Wednesday when he became involved in a confrontation with teenagers, Kansas City police revealed. One 15-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and the attempted theft of a motor vehicle.
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Neither he nor a second juvenile arrested shortly after the shooting can be named because they are minors. A hearing will be held to decide if the 15-year-old can be tried as an adult. Yesterday, a memorial fund set up to support Shaun’s Missouri-born wife Kate and children Seamus and Mary had raised over $100,000 by lunchtime.
Shaun was an integral part of the annual Kansas City Irish Fest which is taking place this weekend. The traditional Irish breakfast event which he organised every year has been cancelled and instead, Shaun will be remembered at a Mass on Sunday.
Irish Fest organisers said: “As a chef, Shaun Brady nourished his community not just with incredible food, but with a deep pride in his culture.”
This pride in his roots was evident in his many television appearances and in other interviews. Shaun, 44, shared stories of growing up in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, on the Taysht podcast with Mike Farragher in 2022. He said: “My two sisters would always say I was the weirdo in the family. Every kid wants to be a firefighter or police officer.
“I was going around saying I wanted to be a chef. There was no talking me out of it.”
Shaun got his first job at age 12 skipping school to peel potatoes and vegetables in the kitchen of a local pub – unbeknown to his mother Mary. And he credited his grandmother for encouraging him in his culinary endeavours.
He revealed: “That [scone] recipe is at this stage probably 120 years old, that came from my grandmother, it was handed down to her.
“I remember making those with her, plastic bowl, mixing everything by hand.
“When I started making scones I threw them into the Kitchen Aid mixer, it never felt right to me. I went back to scratch and started making them by hand. There were times when I was making 2,000 scones, your hands cramp up.
“But to me, it’s worth it. You smell them and your heart lights up because that reminds me of my grandmother. It’s the only recipe I will not change. You can have scones with raisins or not at all. It’s the one time the customer is not right.”
Friday’s Irish Fest opening was a sombre affair overshadowed by the loss of one of the city’s most popular characters. Fighting back tears, Shaun’s close friend Sarah Walsh said: “Some day there will be a little bit of light, and someday it’ll eventually be OK.
“We all try to lift each other up emotionally just in the last 24 to 48 hours since it all happened.”
Shaun’s Irish pal Anthony Canning, who met him 11 years ago at the Ambassador Hotel, revealed: “He was very proud of his scones and Irish soda bread.
“It’s hard to put it in context because he was trying to do the right thing and he was trying to stop something. He was at the wrong place, with the wrong people, at the wrong time.”
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