Clodagh McKenna... on cooking, in three cities

The past six months have been a whirlwind for me. I set up home in London, I am flying back and forth to Dublin every week, and I spend one week a month in New York. Challenging? Yes. Exciting? Every minute. Next year, I will celebrate 20 years working in food, and I have never felt so immersed in food in my life. Running between these three cities, I find myself dipping in and out of exciting new food trends, discovering new food cultures and cooking every minute I can.

I moved to London because the food scene is the best in the world, it’s a hub of creativity, and I found a place that I knew was my home the minute I walked in the door for a viewing. It’s an old coach house overlooking Highbury Fields. A couple of minutes walk and I’m on Holloway Road, which is full of ethnic food stores, or Upper Street, a major restaurant hub. On the Underground, I can be in Soho in 10 minutes.

If there is a food trend starting, it will be in this city: Turkish and Lebanese food are currently having a moment, and if you are in north London, try and get to Black Axe Mangal.

I didn’t realise when I was moving that it would inspire me to create the new Irish dishes I am now cooking. At a recent event I did in Mark Hix’s Kitchen Library in Shoreditch, I created a foodscape of Ireland. It went like this: kelp and cockle sea broth; Dublin Bay prawn ceviche with wild garlic and dillisk farl; Irish honey- and whiskey-glazed Gubbeen smoked bacon on braised spring cabbage with Wicklow apple cider; carrageen buttermilk pudding and wild Irish honey and gorse ice-cream.

Being away from Ireland and coming back every week makes me love and appreciate the country so much more. I am not sure why that is, but I’m so focused on creating Irish dishes, and the inspiration comes from living in London and New York and being surrounded by creative people.

New York is all work for me. I cook on the Rachael Ray Show, the Today show, and then I pop up to Toronto (just an hour's flight) to cook on The Marilyn Denis Show.

In New York, I eat out for every meal. Maybe that will change, but at the moment I can't get enough of discovering the food there. I walk everywhere, every block has something interesting to discover. A couple of weeks ago, after the Today show, I walked home, about 50 blocks (I live in the East Village when I am there) and I discovered a little gem, Mimi Cheng's Dumplings, on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th street – dumplings handmade right in front of you, the best I've ever had.

Talking of food inspiration, ABC Cocina in the Flatiron district is where I eat on every visit to the city. Their pea and avocado guacamole was recreated in my kitchen in London, with summer lamb chops.

I have friends and colleagues over for supper at my home in London at least once or twice a week. This is my place for testing recipes, which I share on my Instagram. And from there I file them for my next book, for a dish of the week in Clodagh’s Kitchen at Arnotts, and for cooking on TV. So my work always leads to pleasure and then back to material for work.

Travelling this much, I have found that I have to get into a certain mindset, so that I can keep it up, but also enjoy it. Discipline wasn’t my strongest virtue, but now I rely on it. And by discipline I mean not drinking alcohol on flights, and exercising the morning before I fly, or when I land in New York. I make green juices every day, or in New York I get them in Juice Press – the best I’ve ever had. I plan my work schedules one month in advance, with a six-month travel plan.

Having my home as a space that I love was so important to me. I decided when I moved in that I wouldn’t get a TV. Instead I spend every free moment creating things that I only ever dreamed of. I turned a spare bedroom off my kitchen into a walk-in pantry, and the balcony off my bedroom is now my kitchen garden, filled with lettuces, tomato, herb and strawberry plants. A loft that overlooks my living room is now a culinary library, and my office, which is where I am writing this.

So it has been six months full of challenges ... fear of living on my own, travelling on my own, and pushing new boundaries. But with these fears met, I’ve found myself in a confident space. I know myself better and I’m happy with myself. There have been many highlights – cooking on American TV with Nigella Lawson, who I am now lucky to call a friend; chatting about Irish food with my idol Martha Stewart in her kitchen, and cooking for Michael Parkinson at Fortnums, to name a few.

Ok, that’s me in a nutshell, at the moment. I’m back now to my kitchen for the day. I have this idea to create pizzettas but with bases like farls, so using grated potato, yogurt and soda. I ate something similar recently in Black Axe Mangal, but it was a flatbread. I’ve restaurateur Russell Norman and food photographer Jason Lowe coming around for supper, so I’m hoping it works. We’ll see . . . I’ll post it on Instagram if it does . . .