Kitchen Hero: Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen is a new 6-part series starting Tuesday 24th June 2014 8.30pm on RTÉ One
Loosely based on the recipes of Irish food writer Theodora Fitzgibbon, this new 6-part series sees popular food writer Donal Skehan looking back over the last 50 years, drawing culinary inspiration from a generation that cooked much more than his own young generation, yet had access to far fewer ingredients.
For Donal’s generation, used to Thai green curry on virtually every menu in Ireland, a wild blackberry seems more exotic than lemongrass, and a tin of coconut milk is more commonly purchased than a carton of buttermilk. While it’s wonderful to have greater choices, Donal argues that it would be a shame for foreign recipes and ingredients to usurp indigenous ones, and recreates some of Theodora’s delicious recipes.
In each programme Donal visits someone with a connection to Theodora Fitzgibbon. Donal’s guests include Mary O’Rourke, a senator and former cabinet minister, who used to teach English before becoming a politician, and used Theodora’s weekly columns in the Irish Times as an example of good, witty and intelligent writing. Michael Gill is Ireland’s leading publisher, and an expert in cookery books. He explains to Donal how trends have changed, both on the page and on the plate – he is also an excellent cook.
Donal also visits Sister Karol O’Connell at the Benedictine Abbey at Kylemore; Marie O’Toole, a leading figure in the ICA; Seamus Healy, a chef who worked in the tourist trade for 45 years, and Brenda Costigan, doyenne of Ireland’s TV chefs, who had a cookery slot on Live At Three for 12 years.
In this new Kitchen Hero series, sponsored by SPAR, Donal also rediscovers old techniques that were commonplace on farms just 40 years ago – making butter, milking cows by hand, digging lazy beds, and cooking over an open fire. For this part of the programme he visits Muckross Traditional Farms, a charming and thoughtful recreation of rural living from the 1930s to the 1970s. Donal then cooks a dish using ingredients that he has made, such as buttermilk (a by-product of making butter) or black pudding, from the blood of a pig that most Irish farms kept. He stresses that he’s not recreating dishes as an historical exercise, but because they are still great dishes to enjoy today.
The new series of Kitchen Hero is once again sponsored by leading Irish convenience retailer SPAR, which has partnered with Donal on the show since 2011. Marketing and Communications Director Suzanne Weldon said it’s all part of SPAR’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle. She said, “In this series Donal is going back to basics, creating simple, healthy meals based on home grown ingredients. SPAR Ireland is a proud supporter of local suppliers and we’re delighted to once again team up with Donal of Kitchen Hero to get the message of nutritious home-cooked food across.”
Programme three: Food and Tourism
Ireland’s tourism industry started in Killarney more than 250 years ago, and Donal travels to the Kerry town to meet Seamus Healy, a chef who worked in hotels there for 45 years. In the grand dining room of the Malton Hotel,formerly the Great Southern Hotel, Seamus tells Donal about the types of food served in hotels nearly 50 years ago, and they chat about how fashions have changed.
On Muckross Traditional Farms Donal learns how to make butter and then makes honey scones with the butter.
Donal also makes a tasty mutton pie and treacle sponge this week.
RTÉ One, Tuesday 8 July 2014 8.30pm
Kitchen Hero: Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen is produced and directed by David Hare of InproductionTV for RTÉ and the series is sponsored by SPAR
Press enquiries:
TVPR Ann Coughlan 087 6778045
Pauline Cronin 087 2629967