With his latest foodie show Donal Skehan continues to preach the gospel of quality dining amid the fast pace of modern life. But can he learn to slow down, and what of his ambitions to make a return to showbiz? He talks to Donal O'Donoghue.
Shortly into this interview I realise my mistake. It’s been five hours since breakfast, my stomach is growling, and Donal Skehan is describing – in mouth-watering detail – one of the meals from his latest culinary adventure, the TV show, Donal’s Real Time Recipes.
As I mentally make a note to never again interview a cook on an empty stomach, Donal himself is dining 'al desko’, munching on a rocket, ham and cucumber sandwich. "Is that a 'Real Time Recipe’ (all of which don’t require an oven)?"
Nope, just the usual grab-and-go fuel to keep him going through a hectic few weeks that has included a new lifestyle/home ware brand launch (Wind Shore), a cookery demo at the Ideal Home Show and prepping his next book, which is a spin-off of Real Time Recipes, made for RTE by his production company, Appetite Media.
The eternally youthful Skehan has crammed a lot into his 38 years. When we speak by Zoom, he’s at home in Howth, a newly renovated 1930s cottage not far from his childhood home, where he lives with his wife Sofie and their two sons, Noah (6) and Oliver (4). Behind him are shelves groaning with books, many of them on foodie matters.
"In the early years of my career, Nigel Slater’s career offered some solace because here was someone who also never saw himself as a chef but as a food writer," he says plucking a copy of Slater’s Eat, all about fast food and a personal favourite, from the shelf.
Skehan himself has published 10 books since his 2009 debut, the award-winning Good Mood Food. "Look at this," he says, brandishing a copy featuring a baby-faced youngster on its cover. "I don’t look like that fella anymore."
Yet his energy and enthusiasm are undimmed (like his stylish silver haircut) and reflected in books and TV titles like Meals in Minutes and Eat. Live. Go. Once upon a time, despite a family history in food production and having flipped his first pancake at the age of four, young Donal Skehan was eyeing a career in showbiz.
He was part of the short-lived boyband Streetwize, had a stab at Eurovision glory in 2008 when Dustin the Turkey won in the National Song Contest and in 2009 joined the pop band, Industry, who had two hit singles before breaking up in 2010.
By then Skehan was a published food writer and ever since he’s been on the culinary path, appearing on US, UK and Irish TV, publishing umpteen books as well as a gazillion blogs and co-founding Appetite Media. "It’s that Venn diagram intersection point where you are making something that people love but is also true to you."
The next item on the menu is Donal’s Real Time Recipes, 30 fuss-free prep to plate creations and a clever idea for a TV series (the book and second season is already lined up for 2025). Like many of Skehan’s books and TV shows it taps into the dizzying pace of modern life where convenience food is king, and many people are armed with air-fryers or slow cookers.
"I’ve always been hyper aware of what’s going on with food via that global online audience, but it always comes back to what you’re passionate about," he says of a show that might champion fuss-free and fast but is also about quality produce. "My only misstep in that world is that I chased the trends a bit too much and after five years of producing online videos week in, week out, I thought, ‘I only want to cook what I’m actually passionate about.’"
But other passions still smoulder. Last year Skehan auditioned for the job of co-hosting Dancing with Stars following the departure of Nicky Byrne. And while Doireann Ní Garrihy got the gig ("maybe I should have tripped her up on the way in," he cracks) it whetted his appetite and "made me think that it was time to step out from behind the kitchen curtain."
Is that still the case? "I always like to have a few strings to my bow, and I need that to scratch the creative itch," he says, something that Appetite Media, which has produced shows for Nico Reynolds and Mark Moriarty, also accommodates. "One of my skills is as a television presenter and I know I can jump into that world if the opportunity arises," he says. "It didn’t happen with Dancing with the Stars but I’m open to whatever comes my way."
Has he been approached to be a contestant on DWTS? "I get asked every year," he says. "I’d love to do the show, especially as I did pantomime way back in my late teens and know how much fun it could be, but I simply don’t have the time to do it. I’d become too obsessed if I did it, imagining that I could become a professional dancer and all the rest. But I will not be donning the sequins right now."
He’s a good friend of DWTS judge, Arthur Gourounlian, having acted alongside Gourounlian’s husband, Brian Dowling, in a 2009 pantomime production of Peter Pan (he was, of course, Peter Pan while Dowling was Captain Hook).
Later, when Skehan and family decamped to LA in 2014, Brian and Arthur were neighbours. "We were new parents and very alone and Arthur and Brian got us out of many holes while we were over there," says Skehan who is godfather to the couple’s daughter, Blu.
Last time we met Skehan was renting a palatial residence overlooking the Irish Sea in a swanky Dublin neighbourhood after a five-year sojourn in Los Angeles. That was also a hectic ex-pat time coinciding with the birth of his children, a global pandemic and grafting for work. Eventually they upped sticks to Ireland – also much closer to Sofie’s family in Sweden – and after a few see-saw years finally found their forever (for now – Skehan is a man in constant motion) home.
"This is a small little cottage but it’s a dream location for us," he says. "After moving about a lot in the past few years, it was like coming up for air with the structure of school and family imposing routine. Maybe LA might be in the retirement plan but we’re in the right place for right now."
Still the plates keep spinning, such that he is careful to keep an eye on his mental health, something we have spoken about in the past. "It’s always there and doesn’t go away but I think it’s in my personality to make myself as busy as possible," he says now.
"My mum and dad always had their own business, food producers who make quiches and pies and all sorts of things and I grew up with that, knowing that if we got a phone call on holidays dad would have to answer it. He’d often be up at 4am and when we got from school could be taking orders for produce at the kitchen table. That has got me to where I am today, but I am also very mindful of my mental health. Today was the first break after two weeks of non-stop intense work and so I went out for a walk."
Following the death of former boyband star Liam Payne, there has been much talk of the pressure on boy band members. During his time with Streetwize and the pop band Industry (two Irish No 1 singles in 2009), Skehan had a brief taste of this. "We certainly weren’t One Direction, but I did get a glimpse of what happens in the very early stages of success in that boyband space," he says.
"People have said that it’s toxic and I would absolutely agree with that: you are promised the sun, moon and stars at a very young age. I was only in that world at the beginning and never saw that overwhelming success, but I can imagine what it can do.
"But I think that there also has been too much conversation about what happened to Liam Payne, so there is some dignity that needs to be maintained around what was an awful tragedy. Ultimately there needs to be a greater duty of care on the adults in the business who are using these young people for their talent and looks."
But for Donal Skehan the show – and book and brand – must go on. "It’s about sustaining the career for a long time. If this face gets even more wrinkled and grey (who’s he kidding?), there’s always Wind Shore Goods, which can stand on its own.
"I’m always conscious of what is coming next." Like Jamie Oliver and others, Skehan has long incorporated his family into his books, TV shows and social media. Does he worry about over-exposing them? "That’s always an ongoing discussion with Sofie and myself," he says. "We’d always be mindful of that exposure, never showing anything too embarrassing or too personal. Noah is now pulling back, saying that he doesn’t want to be in the latest TV show. Maybe when he’s 16, Noah will sue me for including me in all those books and shows."
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