`I learned to eat before I learned to cook" is Eamon O Cathain's simple explanation for his long and continued success as a chef. Only in his mid-40s, he is fondly remembered by those who value good food. People still talk of his innovative stints in Dublin's Shay Beano, the Green Room and Fitzers. Currently, he is working his magic at the McCausland hotel in Belfast.
To be held in such regard is great tribute to a self-taught chef, but he is modest in describing his talent: "If I have a gift at all it is that I can look at something and know what to do with it - even if I haven't come across the ingredients before," he says.
For O Cathain, the simple acts of sitting down at a table, conversing and sharing food (as opposed to mechanically consuming it) are of paramount importance. It is the social element which makes food fun and his new television series, Nua Gach Bia, brings those traits to the fore.
In a series of 10 half-hour programmes two guests embark on a world trip of cuisine and culture. Dishes from Africa, the West Indies, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Thailand, Brazil and Brittany all feature, as do some familiar faces. Fair City's Ciara Callaghan, Ros na Run's Diarmuid de Faoite, RTE's Ciana Campbell and TnaG's Cynthia Ni Mhurchu all drop in for a bite to eat.
In a world saturated with cookery programmes Nua Gach Bia aims to "demystify cooking", says O Cathain. "There is no great mystery to it. It should be about pleasure. I'm not going to get up there and say, `Look how clever I am, I can do this.' You can do this as well. There is no great difficulty. This is the way people in these faraway places live. This is the kind of good simple food they have."
Naturally, the greatest worry for any viewer is to be confronted by a series of recipes which need a dictionary to understand and enough utensils to equip the space shuttle. To his credit, O Cathain avoids these traps by using imaginative recipes with accessible ingredients. It is above all else, he says, O Cathain, about presenting "real" food which people the world over enjoy.
"There are hearty dishes from Portugal and even heartier ones from the Congo and the West Indies. What there might be, apart from that approach to real food, are little-known dishes from Senegal which the majority of white chefs are not doing. Hopefully, that makes the difference," he says.
"My personal philosophy is that I don't cook anything I don't like and there's not much that I don't like. I think that's honest. I don't cook food that's meant to be photographed or admired. I just cook food that tastes good and that has a harmony within itself."
The guests provide an extra ingredient to the series and a little extra flavour. Where other chefs dazzle the audience with jiggery-cookery, O Cathain engages his friends over the kitchen table in conversation about places, people and music. "I like the interaction. I think there's a bit of craic. It's not taking itself terribly seriously. It's not going to put anyone off cooking or be so complicated that nobody can do it."
The emphasis on the "simple and real" is the thread which runs through all O Cathain's work. Recalling a holiday in France, he evokes an evening meal of hot lentils cooked in duck fat and a salad. The taste remains with him as does the pleasant memory of those who shared the repast. "Just heaven," he says.
"Food is important to me because I love the pleasure of sitting down at a table at the same time. I discovered that in France, I embraced it and it has remained with me ever since. I just love sitting down with friends," he says.
He encourages his chefs to remind themselves what it means to eat what they prepare. Too often, he contends, chefs are taken up with the mechanics of a dish and don't stop to partake of what is put in front of the customer. "I encourage them to eat what the customer eats. It's no good just sampling, say, soup. Take a whole bowl and see if it's too salty or not."
Which is not to say that the customer is always right. He does get annoyed by people not engaging with dishes. "People in this country have a habit of rewriting menus. They come in and ask for chips instead of rice or cous-cous instead of polenta. You wonder `Why did you come out here? I've spent all afternoon crafting this. Please try it and if you don't like it then tell me so. but stop rewriting it before you've even had it," he says with exasperation.
He admits to one pet hate. "Cucumbers, I hate cucumbers. If I see one, I stick it in the bin. I hate getting a sandwich with one of the buggers in it."
Nua Gach Bia appears on Wednesdays at 8.30 p.m. on TnaG.