Cooking for a chef: What's it like when the spouse wields the spatula
Everyone assumes that living with a chef would be a dream come true — but having a professional cook in the house doesn’t mean their other half never has to lift a finger.
We spoke to the partners of some of Ireland’s best-known chefs to find out who is slaving over a hot stove, and what it’s like preparing a meal for an expert.
SALLYANNE CLARKE ON COOKING FOR DERRY
There are just the two of us at home now, and we are rarely there due to the hours we work.
But if Derry is putting a new dish together, he usually uses my Mum and me as guinea pigs during Sunday lunch.
I do a great Irish breakfast and even Derry can’t match my poached eggs. But I don’t cook it too often because otherwise, he begins to ask what I am looking for.
Derry is not at all difficult to cook for. In fact, he is usually the opposite — very relaxed and happy that someone else is doing the cooking.
Even beans on toast get his approval. There was a time when he would interfere and suggest other ways to cook or even prepare meals, but I stopped cooking altogether for a while — doing the preparation and washing up instead.
So nowadays, he is very appreciative and happy to let me be in charge.
No — I am not that brave. But I can tell you how to cook most things, as customers ask all the time about preparation and cooking.
However, I prefer to leave the cooking to the professionals.
Once I made a chicken dish with chilli and limes from a magazine recipe. But it was a disaster and we had to order a takeaway — Derry though it was hilarious and I haven’t attempted anything new since.
Whichever of us cooks I always choose the wine — Derry leaves that to me even when we dine out, as he says I always know what he likes and he trusts my judgement.
I believe women tend to have better palates for wine and one of the joys of my job is that I get to taste new wines regularly — so it’s a nice perk.
CATHERINE DUNDON ON COOKING FOR KEVIN
Most of the day-to-day cooking is done by me.
I tend to favour one-pot-wonders such as stew, shepherd’s pie, lasagne and curry — the less cleaning-up the better.
We all love roasts in our house so again I love to throw everything in the roasting pan along with the meat and mix roast potatoes with honey-roasted carrots and parsnips for example.
Leftovers then get transformed into something like chicken biryani or a hearty lamb stew.
The kids all love pasta of course so again I’m happy to see everything in the one pan. On a lazy night I’ll do Spanish potato omelette with green salad and garlic bread.
Kevin will always take charge of major events like Christmas and other full-on family celebrations and he seems to just throw everything together at very short notice and with very little effort yet still produces something mouth-watering, which is really annoying for me.
The kids and I have tried quite a couple of Kevin’s recipes — with all his cookbooks on the shelf, we have a big stock to choose from — his brown bread and scones and the fish cooking techniques are spot on.
When things go wrong there is no point in Kevin telling me off as I will just abandon the effort and happily have beans on toast if necessary.
He will usually roll his eyes and mutter under his breath but knows there’s no point losing the head with my cooking as he’ll end up having to do it himself otherwise.
I made a chocolate soufflé once with the kids but the less said the better on our result. I usually try to hide any evidence of a total disaster before Kevin even sniffs it and we have a big golden retriever who happily helps me out.
Wine is usually my domain but with our new craft brewery here at Dunbrody, Kevin often brings up new recipes [beers] to sample with our dinner.
MARIA CORRIGAN ON COOKING FOR RICHARD
When the children were young, I did most of the cooking, making things that kids like to eat like pasta, roasts and shepherd’s pie.
Now that the family are older, they all like to chip in and help out with cooking — so whoever gets in first in the evening will usually make a start on preparing dinner which is great as it is lovely to come home to a meal already cooked.
He is not difficult to cook for at all — he is easily pleased and often likes basic things like beans on toast or a toasted sandwich if he has just come in from work.
He does, however, interfere when others are cooking and feels the need to jump in.
It doesn’t help that our kitchen-diner is open plan so unless he leaves the room he can see what’s going on.
I have tried the soda bread recipe which turned out fine and tasty, but haven’t ventured beyond that yet.
There have been lots of culinary disasters but the one that sticks in my mind was a risotto which turned out like glue.
While making it I got distracted on the phone and when I got back to the dish it was stuck to the pot — it was a disaster which I haven’t attempted since.
Richard likes to choose wine which is fine as he knows more about it than me. If my son Richie is around I will ask his advice on what wine to choose as he also has a good knowledge of wines.
AMELDA MAGUIRE ON COOKING FOR NEVEN
Neven does most of the cooking, making big batches for the twins to eat when they come home from pre-school, or for us to have during the week. I experiment with healthy recipes such as gluten-free and sugar-free options and Neven passes on great tips to me.
He really appreciates anything anyone else prepares for him. He has a very sweet tooth and loves my coconut and chocolate bars.
When we were in Thailand last winter we had some delicious food which Neven loved and I have been attempting to re-create some of the dishes. He is great to show me what to do, but does find it difficult to then step back and let me take over.
I have attempted quite a few of his recipes, particularly from his new healthy home chef book — I made a hummus and tuna bruschetta which I turned out to be really good but the twins informed me that ‘Daddy’s was better’.”
Yes, I have had more than a few disasters — even last week, I was trying to make a stock and put the bones on to boil but completely forgot about them and when I remembered and went to turn down the pan, the juice had completely evaporated.
I also had a disaster with some sweet potato which again I forgot about and the pan burned so badly that Neven had to take it in to work to put it into an acid bath to try and get the black off it — I think I just try to do too many things at once.
We both like the same white wines and both like pinot noir reds, but Neven has a much better memory for remembering a wine we have had and liked before, so he will usually have a quick look. If he doesn’t see anything which catches his eye, I will make the decision.
MAIRE FLYNN ON COOKING FOR PAUL
I actually do most of the family cooking especially the everyday dinners for the kids during the week.
Paul doesn’t interfere when I am cooking and isn’t the slightest bit difficult to prepare a meal for, as long as it’s all perfect.
I often use the recipes Paul has created for Lidl Ireland and they always turn out well, as they are perfect for fast family food. Otherwise I like Domini Kemp and Nigel Slater cookbooks.
We have an Aga and I found it a bit tricky at the beginning — I remember cremating a roast chicken in the hottest oven, but generally I don’t have too many culinary disasters as usually I have someone to turn to for advice.
Paul is hopeless at choosing wine so when we are having dinner, I generally take care of that side of things.
