Diners hoping to see the once spikyhaired TV star braising oxtails or filleting steak will be disappointed, but the Irish operators of the venture say that the restaurant will be no different on account of Rhodes's absence. After all, a conductor isn't expected to play all the instruments in the orchestra, so why should the busy media chef be expected to prepare each order that comes through the hatch? Rhodes has set the scene, now it is simply a matter of implementation. The alternative view is that the restaurant is little more than a franchise with Rhodes's celebrity being used to lure in the punters.

Whichever opinion you subscribe to, one thing is not in doubt and that is Rhodes's willingness to use his name as a brand for countless products, whether they are TV programmes, books, condiments, kitchen accessories or restaurants. Some critics say he has spread himself too thinly, and has never fulfilled his potential to be a great chef. Others believe his 13 television series, 17 books and utensils range are testament to his energy and ambition to encourage people to eat well.

Before making his first TV appearance in 1994, Rhodes was tipped to be one of the leading cooks in Britain.

On graduating from Thanet catering college in Kent in the early '80s, he went to work as a commis at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. While there, he was hit by a tram and was required to have brain surgery. Understandably, this incident caused Rhodes to reflect on his career and he decided to return to England, where he worked as a sous chef at the Reform Club in Pall Mall and at the Capital hotel in Knightsbridge.

In 1986, he became head chef at the Castle hotel in Taunton, Somerset and retained the hotel's Michelin star at the age of 26. In 1990, he married college girlfriend Jennifer Adkins and they returned to London where Rhodes was appointed head chef of the Greenhouse restaurant in Mayfair, which, under his charge, won its first-ever Michelin star six years later.

Despite starting off in European 'nouvelle cuisine', Rhodes's innovation as a chef was to redefine standard British dishes such as spotted dick, cottage pie and bread and butter pudding, removing them from their associations with miserable school. His championing of this food could not have been more propitious. Whether it was fans singing 'football's coming home' at the European Championships in 1996 or the promotion of 'Cool Britannia' by the newly elected Tony Blair as he quaffed champagne with Noel Gallagher of Oasis in Downing Street, English culture in the mid-to late '90s was remarkably self-congratulatory and a Rhodes braised oxtail was just another example of the apparent renaissance.

His first break on television came through a contact on TV: AM where his spiky hair and 'cheeky chappie' persona produced an instant rapport with viewers. Soon after the BBC offered him a full series dedicated to the best of British food.

However, he was probably then more famous for appearing in an ad campaign for Tate & Lyle, a maker of refined sugar, which played on his image as a decent bloke. More television series followed as well as a concert tour, which saw the chef demonstrating his favourite recipes to sell-out audiences. His fame reached its height in 1996 when only in his mid-30s he was the subject of an episode of This is Your Life.

Rather than be swept away by this adulation, Rhodes displayed a shrewd head for business. The following year he hooked up with French catering giant Sodexho and opened two restaurants in London, both of which earned Michelin stars, as well as brasseries in Manchester, Edinburgh. . . and Crawley. He was was criticised for his involvement with a faceless multinational but the London restaurants in particular were acclaimed.

Because of poor trading results at Sodexho, the partnership came to an end in 2003 and all five restaurants closed. But Rhodes was not down for long and soon teamed up with another catering giant, Compass. He has since opened a restaurant in the Nat West tower, one of London's tallest buildings, for which he was awarded the fifth Michelin star of his career, and a brasserie in the Cumberland Hotel that is similar in style to the new Dublin outlet.

While this isn't his first overseas venture . . . Rhodes has a restaurant at the Calabash hotel in the Caribbean . . . opening in Dublin is a risky move. The restaurant is on the corner of Capel Street and Mary's Abbey on the north side of the city, near the Four Courts, an area not renowned as a destination for posh nosh. Unlike Rhodes's other restaurants, Compass is not involved; the developer of the host office building, Sean Kelly, is backing the deal.

Also of concern to Rhodes may be his friend Jean Christophe Novelli's shortlived alliance with La Stampa on Dawson Street, which petered out as soon as customers realised Novelli was never actually there.

What may worry his backers is Rhodes and Novelli's appearance last year on Hell's Kitchen, ITV's reality cookery programme, as replacements for Gordon Ramsay. Neither had the fiery Scot's presence and the show has since been axed. Rhodes's cheery demeanour seems passe in comparison to Ramsay's foul-mouthed swagger. While his restaurants continue to prosper and his books sell, Rhodes's association with the Cool Britannia of the mid-'90s mark him out as something of a yesterday's man.

What this will mean for his Dublin restaurant only time will tell, but there is no doubt that Rhodes is entering an extremely competitive market.

Ten years ago, a celebrity chef opening a restaurant in Dublin would have been heralded with great fanfare, but now the attitude is different. People eat out more and standards are higher. Diners are not as easily impressed and while the restaurant is reportedly booked out for the first six weekends, it may take more than just the Rhodes name for it to continue to thrive.

C.V.

Occupation: Celebrity chef
Age: 46
In the news: His new restaurant opened for business in Dublin last night