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KITCHEN HERO: REDISCOVERING THE IRISH KITCHEN ***FINAL***

(32)Kitchen Hero Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen final programme, Tuesday August 5th. Presenter Donal Skehan with Patricia Quinn Murphy Image Name: (32)Kitchen Hero Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen final programme, Tuesday August 5th. Presenter Donal Skehan with Patricia Quinn Murphy Description: Kitchen Hero Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen final programme, Tuesday August 5th. Presenter Donal Skehan with Patricia Quinn Murphy

Series 4, episode 7 (Final) 

In the early 1960s, more people in Ireland were employed in domestic service (cooks, gardeners, maids) than there were teachers.  Donal meets Patricia Quinn Murphy who started her working life as an assistant cook aged 16, in a large house in Wexford and learns about a recent but largely forgotten part of our social history.

At Muckross Traditional Farms, Donal is shown how to make soda bread in a bastible and makes Gur Cake, a popular Dublin sweet bread.

RTÉ One,  Tuesday 5 August 2014 8.30pm

Full Release below:

Loosely based on the recipes of Irish food writer Theodora Fitzgibbon, this new 7-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 eldon 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.”

Final programme:

In the early 1960s, more people in Ireland were employed in domestic service (cooks, gardeners, maids) than there were teachers.  Donal meets Patricia Quinn Murphy who started her working life as an assistant cook aged 16, in a large house in Wexford and learns about a recent but largely forgotten part of our social history.

At Muckross Traditional Farms, Donal is shown how to make soda bread in a bastible and makes Gur Cake, a popular Dublin sweet bread

Kitchen Hero: Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen is produced and directed by David Hare of InproductionTV for RTÉ and the series is sponsored by SPAR

 

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