Feeding the family . . . multiple ways

In the early years of the Tannery restaurant, our home was very much in second place in terms importance. It was only a place to sleep – and do some couch surfing on our day off – usually with a dodgy takeaway.

There were times set aside, of course, for fantastically wild parties, for everyone knows that restaurant people know how to work hard but are also very adept at letting off steam. So the house became a Mecca for off-duty restaurant people. This was when Dungarvan was rechristened Fungarvan. Those same friends still come, but now I cook, we have some wine and watch the telly. By midnight were all nodding off. How times have changed.

Children change the dynamics of a house. They give it life and a purpose. All of a sudden it’s not about us anymore, but that’s ok. The hours that we grasped for ourselves before are now the hours that we spend ferrying children to and fro from Irish dancing and swimming and so on – every parent knows what it’s like.

In writing this book I wanted to show that Lidl is a one-stop shop. I found the assembly of these recipes therapeutic. My early morning shopping expeditions for ingredients set me up for the day, and testing the recipes in the cookery school renewed my confidence in the belief that good food need not be expensive or complicated.

Cooking at home is far more important than any complicated creation a chef can make. It literally shapes our children, and can make every house a home.The book is all about the family ... feeding them and hopefully creating some new memories for everybody.

Recipes and images from Paul Flynn's Family Food , published on March 20th, €12.99