Kitchen Hero

Kitchen Hero returns to RTÉ One for a second series with popular presenter Donal Skehan sharing his tips and tricks for thrifty cooking and cheap eating.
But banish any thoughts of penny-pinching and making do with less than tasty fare. This brand new series is all about embracing home cooking at its very best and making inexpensive ingredients work harder for the money you spend on them, so that you can enjoy delicious food as part of your everyday diet.

Donal believes that for his generation, which has grown up in a time of pre-washed lettuce, ready grated cheese and any number of other convenience foods, thrifty cooking practices can seem like they are from a long forgotten world. But he also believes that this is the time to rediscover these great cooking traditions and stop relying on convenience foods, which cost us more and are of inferior quality to those that can be made at home.

"My grandmother is one of the most frugal self-taught cooks you will ever meet", says Donal who unlike other TV chefs has had no formal training. But that hasn't stopped him from writing an award-winning blog and two very successful cook books, with his third book out next month. (Kitchen Hero - Great Food For Less, published by Collins in May).

"She raised my mum and her six siblings with very little income but that never stopped her from producing wonderfully elegant yet inexpensive meals. Her long-ingrained home-making skills, using inexpensive materials and simple methods, are some the greatest kitchen tips that have been passed on to me. There is a whole army of grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles up and down the country who possess and use these skills without giving them a second thought. Many of them may have been brought up in households with tight budgets, where watching the pennies was part and parcel of daily life. Some of my favourite recipes and cooking practices are ones I've learnt as a result of just chatting on the topic of frugal cooking with those in the know," he says.

"My recipes are all simple to follow and don't require any complicated kitchen equipment so even those with very few cooking skills can be encouraged to try their hand at them. For those who love to cook on a regular basis, I'd encourage you to try out some new ingredients, such as offal, or underused cuts of meat. I hope all the recipes will inspire you to try a new approach to cooking - one that is hugely satisfying for your appetite as well as your wallet".