This much I know: Martin Shanahan, Chef

If you are in business, the day you don’t learn something is the day you’re in trouble. If I could change one thing in Ireland, I’d like us to be more positive.

We don’t tell ourselves how good we are often enough, even though, as a nation, we are so popular all around the world.

I loved living in the States. In America, they love when you are successful, and even when you fail they push you on to succeed again. But here, if we see failure, we tend to think that person probably won’t be able to do anything much again.

When you’re too busy, you’re not making money. I enjoy the television work, but you can never let your focus go off the main earner.

I’m an organised person. I don’t put off until tomorrow what I can do today.

I love making the television programmes, but my first time on camera I was so nervous I couldn’t talk. I think I got some kind of a mental block. At this stage, I’m more relaxed with the crew, from RTÉ in Cork, who have all become friends.

The best advice I ever got was that if you give out even just a little in life, you will get an awful lot back. Which is why I get up each day and try and give it 100%.

My biggest fear is growing old.

There was no history of cheffing or catering in my family. My dad was in the hardware business. But our home in Fermoy was always full of cooking.

My grandmother lived with us and what I remember most is all the home baking and cooking. A shop-bought pack of biscuits in the cupboard would have been a real treat.

I got into the business by accident. I’d had casual jobs in bars up to that and thought cheffing might suit me. I trained in Rockwell in

1979.

I always had a passion for fish and for being by the sea. My first job was in The Butler Arms, in Waterville, where there were lots of trout and salmon about.

The guests fished during the day and that evening we cooked for them whatever they’d caught. After that, I worked abroad, in Germany and San Francisco, for several years.

San Francisco is such a great city for food and is so multi-cultural that we didn’t think we’d ever come back home. But when we decided to do so, we knew it had to be to Kinsale.

My advice to anyone who wants to own a restaurant is that you have got to specialise in something. I believe that’s why we are so successful. If there can be a Fishy Fishy, why not a Beefy Beefy?

Most importantly, you have got to know your market: who you want to look after and what type of food they want to eat.

We started 21 years ago with a fish shop and deli. The hardest thing about setting up on your own is making the decision. Once made, there is no going back.

My wife is still involved two to three days a week. The two boys are 17 and 15 and want to do their own thing, and I’d never force them into the business, but it looks like the 10-year-old, Lucy, could take over.

I love living by the sea. I am amazed at how the view changes every time I look out the window — depending on how the sun hits the water, if the tide is in or out, if the place is full of boats or not. But I’m not a big sailor — I’m interested in golf, horse racing and hurling.

¦ Martin and Paul’s Surf ‘n’ Turf is on RTÉ One, Wednesdays, 8pm