Chefs reveal what they keep in their fridge
Irish cheesemaker and author of Gubeen: The Story of a Working Farm and its Foods
Yes, a lot. The whole family cooks and often eats together, and I have to make a lunch every day for all the people working on the farm.
Our farm food, our eggs, milk, Ballymaloe relish, gherkins, anchovies, the things you need to bump up a dish. If I’m too busy to make something from scratch, I use sauces. I love Stokes’ horseradish, and John Petterson’s raspberry vinegar, made here in Schull, will round off a flavour for you. I always have capers. We are great butter eaters and try to have lovely local butter, Glenillen or Aghadown. Occasionally, we make it ourselves and we always have our own yoghurt.
Not often enough. Luckily, we have one of those fridges that, if it is too full and containers touch the back wall, it causes pools of melting water to form at the bottom, so I have to tear into it like a mad-woman.
Yes, honest woman. Well, I shifted the clutter and took out some of the leftovers.
We use it a lot. We’re a big family and there is lots of children’s food and leftovers from dinner or lunch, things you think you’ll use again. Anything not eaten will go into stocks or to the chickens.
Apart from me …? I’m in the food business and understand it perhaps more than I should, and use-by-dates, to me, are a cautious indication rather than a biological micro-hazard. Sometimes, if I’m in a supermarket and I see good cheeses being sold off cheap, because they’re close to their sell-by-date, I’ll buy them. In my opinion, they’re just ‘coming in’ at that stage and are delicious and just becoming interesting.
Kefir. My daughter, Clovisse, always seem to have kefir [a fermented milk drink made from kefir ‘grains’] in there — it’s so cleansing, somebody called it Dynorod for your gut.
Some Canadians once brought us some smoked beaver, but I felt bad about it. I didn’t want to eat it.
Yes, always, there has to be. To be honest, we have two fridges. Lunch has to be there: [Husband] Tom comes tearing in and lunch has to be there. And there’s some of Paul’s pork pie [West Cork pies]. I’d serve cheese, pork pies, hummus, a big salad from Clovisse’s garden, tomatoes, and that would be lunch. With lots of butter, very nice bread from the great bakers at Skib and Schull markets, and a big pot of tea.
No, I’d be lying if I said yes. If I’m having people over I love to, but I’m very bad at cooking for myself.
Butter. The eggs don’t live in the fridge, but I put them in to fill a space. Parmesan cheese, blueberries, for a quick vitamin burst in the morning, always carrot juice or some kind of juice. Always tonic water, for a good gin and tonic, and a bottle of fizz is essential.
I’m very good at that, ’cos there’s never much in it. When I’m off, I’ll go to the market and buy stuff, but cook it on the day.
I might have wiped the shelves a little bit and ‘staged’ things a bit. I threw out milk and there was a small bit of goat’s cheese that didn’t look like any point in keeping it.
Not three weeks, anyway. I wouldn’t keep them for that long; you can see completely through the fridge. If I think I can do something with them the next day, then, yeah. I don’t like waste. Milk — I use a tiny bit and end up throwing the rest out.
A chilled eye mask — after a long day at work, it’s nice to chill out with the eye mask and a glass of fizz. Cucumber water. It’s very good for your skin. We make it from the pulp from inside the cucumber that we don’t use at work, add it to water and chill. Drink it as a cleanser, inside and out.
[Laughing] Gaviscon, best served chilled from the fridge!
Award-winning chef at VM Restaurant, at Viewmount House, Co Longford, TV Chef on TV3, author of Food for the Soul (Bluebird Care).
Oh yes, an awful lot, especially since we moved to the new house, every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night, and I often leave soup or stews or chillis that are handy for [wife] Annette. And my in-laws are just up the road, so I like to have them down.
Always butter and I really like Improper Butter. Mustard, cream. Lots of milk, because my wife is a tea addict. A bottle of bubbles on standby, and craft beer for after a hard night in the restaurant. Sliced ham, various cheeses, some staple veg, including lettuce, onions, garlic, peppers — basically, sandwich ingredients. I’m a bit of a nibbler. I like to grab a slice of cheese and ham and eat on the go. There’s nearly always the basis of sauce or soup or a stew.
I’m very house proud, so I would wipe it down every couple of days, and clean it properly every week to two weeks. I’d always empty it before going shopping and I’d make a list, check dates. I keep it spanking clean. It cost me quite a bit, so I don’t f*** around with it. A good chef is a clean chef so, no more than at work, I like it to be clean and clear. When you can’t see things, it’s a surefire way of wasting money.
Didn’t need to. The only thing I did was brought some bits to the front.
I always use them. Generally, everything I make will have a sell-on value. I’m a big fan of leftovers and of not having to cook every day, and, with me at work, Annette is left on her own to look after [infant daughter] Cora, so I try and leave stuff she can use.
Seaweed pesto, from Mullaghmore, Eithna’s by the Sea, in Mullaghmore. It’s really, really good. Hellmann’s mayo — I don’t make my own. Maybe it’s wrong for a chef to be saying, but I don’t like yellow mayo. I prefer white. It’s handy and, in a ham sandwich, a big-ass spoon of Hellman’s, happy days — and I’ve no shame in saying it, beautiful.
From my wife’s point of view, lamb sweetbreads [pancreas or thymus]. They may be familiar to chefs, but she had a canary when she saw them. I had them there to test a dish, a pithivier, but she had a little moment about it. They can look very brain-like.
There’s a chicken, and potatoes and broccoli in the bottom shelf, so I’d do the first thing I ever cooked for my wife, a lovely chicken piccata out of the breast with garlic and butter, and I’d use the legs and thighs for paella. There’s a lady who personally delivers the olive oil we use in the restaurant, two or three times a year from Barcelona, and she always brings a little gift. This time, it was those packets of paella rice. And in the freezer are little meals for Cora. I’d do them once every two or three weeks: liver, pork, chicken, beef, squash, broccoli, and so on, and break them down into little portions.
Galway-based, Michelin-starred chef. His new venture, Loam Restaurant & Wine Bar, is one of the most eagerly anticipated Irish
hospitality openings in years.
I cooked every day for the kids, Finn (6) and Ailbhe (3), for the last year, dinners and lunches. It will change with the new opening, but they’ll come in for staff meals, Taco Tuesdays, and so on.
Cheese and pickles, all sorts of jars of bloody crap. Jalapenos.
I try to be on top of it: a good clean-out every two weeks
No, I didn’t have time, but I took some of the crap out.
It depends. If we have time, and are in our routine, but the last few weeks have been a bit mental. There’s always mashed potatoes.
The jalapenos, but I’ll still eat them. They’re in pickle juice. There’s bound to be some veg in the salad crisper past their date and there’s two jars of mayo, so I bet you one is past its date. I don’t mind Hellmans — when you’re rushing to make a sandwich at 7.30 in the morning for the school lunch, it’s very handy. [Laughing] and I don’t make mustard from scratch either!
Bags of vac-packed ransoms, a big kilner jar of kohl rabi, from a friend’s farm, pickled, salted rowan berries. America Village Apothecary simple syrups, made from wild herbs for cocktails. There’s a pine syrup and a meadowsweet syrup, which are really nice.
At the moment, the rowan berries. After a week, they were horrible and then, after a month, they were lovely. They just sit in salt and their own juices and are really tannic.
Yes. No meat, but some cheese and mashed potatoes, so I’d make some sort of potato hash with sauerkraut and cheese and hot sauce.
Food writer, cookbook author and TV presenter.
All the time. Dinner is whatever is in the fridge. I usually write shopping lists around what I want to eat, but, lately, I’ve been getting veg from Caroline Robinson, at the Coal Quay Market. It’s beautiful.
Milk, cheese, yoghurts, dairy, dairy, dairy!
My sons are dragging over the chairs every day, taking everything out, leaving leeks in the living room, so that helps. I do a list before shopping every weekend, so I’d look. When you’re getting gorgeous, organic veg, you’re very conscious of waste as well. I use every bit of the veg. I never throw things out, even when I clean it out.
In front of him, briefly — when he suggested it! I removed a bottle of chilli sauce that was nearly gone, ’cos I thought it looked terrible.
I usually use them, I did home-made pizzas bases and left them in there along with some puy lentils and chilli con carne, which [husband] Colm put on top of the pizza base — it was a disaster!
No, but I wouldn’t be too picky. I’d give it a few days’ grace, but not meat.
Lidl organic tomato sauce — it’s really nice.
My sister gave me the starter for kombucha [shudders with distaste], but I couldn’t use it.
Always. I’d make it with purple sprouting broccoli, butter, parmesan and garlic.
