Culture That Made Me: Donal Skehan on Bourdain, Tucci and Swedish pop music
Donal Skehan and his dog in Baltimore.
Donal Skehan, 35, grew up in Howth, Co Dublin. After a few years living in Los Angeles, he has returned to live in Howth with his wife, two sons and their sheepdog, Max. As a pop star, he enjoyed two #1 singles with the band Industry in 2009. Over the last decade, he has hosted a number of TV food shows and published several cookbooks. He is currently presenting Donal’s Road Trip, a travel series in search of delicious food around Ireland, RTÉ One, Wednesdays, 8.30pm.
My first love was cheesy pop music, particularly the Eurovision. I remember watching the Eurovision in 1994. It was the year of Riverdance and Rock ’n’ Roll Kids. A classic year. It sparked an interest that has spanned decades.
I've always loved the eclectic nature of the music on the show. It has some incredible songs and incredible artists that take part. As a youngster, it gave me insight into different cultures and countries across Europe.
My wife is Swedish. Sweden is the home of all things Europop. When I was in a band we spent a lot of time in recording studios there. I once interviewed Robyn in the early stages of my career on TV. I love her creativity. Her albums are ones I would listen to all the way through. I love her experimental approach to pop music.
I got to see her at The Forum in Los Angeles. She didn’t just roll out the hits. It was a different type of concert to anything I’d seen before: what she was wearing on stage, her set. There were moments where the light was billowing through these white curtains. The whole process took the audience on a journey. She straddles the uncool pop world and the cool cultural world.
Over the years, I’ve mellowed. I have a love of jazz music, which is probably a bit more respectable. It was music that was always there in the background, the likes of Miles Davis. We spent over four years in Los Angeles so my love of jazz music grew there.
It’s another world. It’s more than the music. It sets the tone, the mood. It’s part of a process for me on a Friday night to put on a jazz record on the record player, pour a Negroni and take solace after a long week. Having two kids has possibly spurred on the process [laughs].
I grew up in the 90s. It was that time where food was kind of going from the Delia Smith home economics school to today’s rock-star chefs. It was an interesting time. In between, there were places for people like Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater. They were such big characters and they were so fresh.
Cooking on TV at the moment sometimes feels like we’re going through the motions. It was a golden era back then. I always remember one scene on a Nigel Slater programme where they ripped apart a roast chicken and extolled the virtues of the simplicity of food.
I love the River Café podcast. It's with Ruth Rogers. Her husband died recently. He was one of the architects of the Pompidou Centre in Paris. She's continued on with the River Café. She has these amazing stories about people who come through the River Café on her podcast.
She interviews every intriguing person you could imagine, from Jake Gyllenhaal to Victoria Beckham. It makes for great listening. I actually got to eat there. It was every bit as amazing as you would expect – with the price tag, of course, but the experience was worth it.
The passing of Anthony Bourdain a few years ago was a huge loss for the food community. He exemplified what it was to be someone who was curious about food. He had bravery when it came to food. He presented it in such a unique style. It was hard not to be blown away by his shows.
He had such a big interest in certain parts of culture. I remember one amazing episode had a karate theme: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was effectively re-created within the show. Those kinds of scenes weren’t seen on TV before. He shot a Rome episode like a Fellini movie. The essence of who he was always came through. It's hard to put anyone up against him.
I'm loving Stanley Tucci’s show. You wouldn’t think of him as a food person, but he has substance. He’s an amazing actor. I love his approach. He has a quiet curiosity, this willingness to listen and allow a contributor to tell their story.
His style is less interview; instead he allows people to immerse you in their life story and their life through food. He kind of blew up during Covid for his ability to make a good Negroni cocktail. It’s that air of sophistication he brings to the table.
The American version of The Office I watch on repeat. It’s a switch-off routine for me. It’s so cringe-inducing – that these bumbling idiots are in charge of intelligent people. Compared to the UK version, the American version of The Office has the space and more seasons to evolve the characters.
The evolution of the lead character is comedy in itself. Steve Carell as an actor, his comic timing, is so funny. There’s so much to him as that character Michael Scott.
Amélie is a favourite film of mine. There’s something lovely about the world the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet creates, and the detail he creates around the characters in the film. Yann Tiersen has fantastic songs on the soundtrack.
A film like Amélie has that ability to take you and inspire you and bring you to another place. Most movies that I'm taken with it, they trigger new ideas and otherworldly inspiration, which is an exciting thing.
I love Wes Anderson films like, for example, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I love the colours, the palettes that were chosen, the uniforms, even the fonts that are used on screen. The way he introduces the audience to these worlds he creates. The hilarity that is created with these awkward situations, which Bill Murray as a lead does so well.
Alongside these really interesting and quirky soundtracks. There is a Brazilian artist called Seu Jorge. He's a beautiful singer. A lot of the tracks that he recorded for the movie were recorded on set. I listen to his music all the time because it’s so evocative of that film.
