Donal Skehan, Kitchen Hero and the new rock ‘n’ roll

FOOD is the new rock ‘n’ roll and chef Donal Skehan is back on stage in Limerick for seconds with a sequel to his successful HomeCooked Tour.
2014 has been a busy year for Kitchen Hero Donal Skehan so far, he has not one but two RTE TV Series airing this year. If that wasn’t enough Donal is also the lead presenter on Junior Masterchef on BBC 1 and his Grandmas Boy TV Show debuted worldwide on the Fox International Network this summer.
Last year Donal was the first ever Irish chef to tour a ”live” cookery show around Ireland. He enjoyed himself so much he has decided to do it again! Donal spoke to Limerick Post this week.
“My aim is to get people cooking. Getting the audience involved is really key to it, so there will be more of that on this tour. We had great fun with it last year. There will be all new recipes and a meet and greet at the end of the night.”
His Kitchen Hero Two Tour hits the road this November and will see him cook live on stage, with lots of fun, loads of food and lashings of audience participation!
So is Food the “new Rock ‘n’ Roll”?
“I suppose its going that way. The success of food programmes on TV show it is becoming increasingly popular. It is bizarre to cooking in venues but my background is in music.”
Donal sang with the boyband Streetwize and the pop group Industry notching up a brace of hit songs. In 2008 he competed to represent Ireland at Eurovision, his song ‘Double Cross My Heart’ wasn’t chosen and Donal went back to his first love and wrote his first cookbook, ‘Good Mood Food’.
“I’ve taken early retirement from the music industry,” he laughs. “I was writing a food blog before the band, it has always been a big part of my life growing up. I always had an interest in cooking.”
Kitchen Hero: HomeCooked is on RTÉ One, Tuesdays from 8:30pm. Donal Skehan, Kitchen Hero Two, The HomeCooked Tour will be rocking The Lime Tree Theatre on Friday November 21.