I have always had a fascination with food ever since I can
remember. Although brought up in Ireland,
I had a very unconventional upbringing when it came to food. When people think
of Irish cuisine, their minds travel down a path edged with such foods as
potatoes, cabbage and the inevitably over-boiled shoulder of Bacon. However in
my case it was different mostly due to the fact that my mother had lived in and traveled through several countries across Europe during her early twenties.
This exposure to European cuisine and the fact that she was a prolific dinner
host from the 1970’s onwards,
contributed to my passion for food. I
have many childhood memories of such dishes as Hungarian Goulash, Beef Stroganoff
and Coq au Vin gracing our dinner table.
As I grew older I became more interested in what was going
on behind the scenes in the kitchen and eventually I asked my mother to teach
me how to create some of these wonderful dishes. She promised to teach me ‘her
way of cooking’ as she put it. She always maintained that a recipe was merely a
‘guideline and not a religion’ when it came to creating a dish, and this is how
I have cooked ever since.
