Edel Clarke: Tell us about Lamb, Tasty, Easy, Fun.
Stuart O'Keeffe: I flew over especially from LA for the Bord Bia lamb campaign, which is for Europe and Ireland as well. So it's six countries, I believe, in Europe that are participating in this. This is to bring lamb... to make young people more aware of it, to make a dish during the week as opposed to Easter or Christmas as we all grew up with - Mammies and Daddies making it at special times. So it's great the recipes are online (www.tastyeasylamb.ie/Recipes); they're all, like, 20 minute recipes.
Is lamb somewhat underutilised by younger cooks?
When it comes to lamb, I feel people don't think about it, so by doing this campaign it is making people more aware.
Is lamb among your favourite summer dishes?
Lamb is in season - it's in its peak, it's reasonably priced. Definitely get out there and buy lamb. Make your lamb burgers; lamb chops you can use as appetisers as well if you want with a nice pesto. Also, I love to cook with tomatoes; they're just great over the summer. I just love to do some tomatoes in a salad with some balsamic and a really good olive oil. And peaches - I love grilling peaches on the barbecue and serving them with some blue cheese. [Cashel Blue, no doubt, as he's a Tipperary man!]
What is your favourite meal?
My favourite meal... I love a rack of ribs, like barbecued ribs. I just love eating the meat off the bone. I don't know why! It's like chicken wings - I love chicken wings as well. They're my little kind of 'cheat meal' that I try to have a few times a month. Ribs are just one of those things! Deserted on an island my last meal would be ribs and probably with some chips!
Is Irish produce something that you're quite proud of?
Any time I cook I always try and find Irish produce; it's really nice. Whenever I'm cooking for someone I'm really proud. I'm like, 'Look at this Cashel Blue cheese here with this salad'. I use Kerrygold products whenever I can and if there's any imported Irish meat [I use that also]. I don't see much of it unfortunately in Los Angeles. There's such great producers over there too in the States - I cook lamb all the time over there and they have great Colorado lamb. But any time I can showcase Irish produce I do because the way I see it, it's made with better quality ingredients than it is over there. It's so hard with food over in the States. It's manipulated in so many ways and you have to be so careful before you buy and check the packaging and what stuff they've put into it to sell more.
So do you miss Irish produce when you're away?
Yeah, I definitely do. Being from Ireland I definitely would miss Irish produce a lot and I do love coming home, even for just the sausages and the pudding and stuff like that. We don't have those over there! I definitely see when I come home when I cook just for Mom and Dad that food is fresher here and is cleaner and, you know, that's really, really nice to see!
So if there was one Irish product that you'd love to see being showcased in the US what would it be?
I would love to see the breakfast proteins in the supermarkets over there. I would love to see the sausages and rashers and to see them well received. You can just do so much with them; I could incorporate them into so many of my dishes, which would be a lot of fun to do.
Are you looking forward to the Taste of Dublin?
I'm really looking forward to the Taste of Dublin. I think this is my third of fourth year of doing it - I can't remember now, but I love coming home! People are always saying, 'Well why do you love coming home? It's America and it's sunny and it's great!' But no, I always love to come home to Ireland and I always try to come home around this time of year, as well as Christmas and Easter, of course. I love Taste of Dublin; it's just so great and I think everybody is in such a good mood. They're happy and, weather permitting, it can be even better! I'm really, really excited! One thing I want to say about Taste of Dublin is to make people aware that tickets are available on the day. If you didn't pre-book them, don't worry about it - you will get in! You can buy them at the gate.
What are your plans for the rest of the summer?
Right now, it's just the Taste of Dublin at home and then I head back to the States. I'm shooting a pilot for Food Network for a new show called Toxic Kitchen. It's more about the relationships that go on in the businesses. It's me and an expert that kind of specialises in, like, organisational behaviour and how it can affect businesses. I'm kind of the chef coming in to fix the food, so it's kind of like a bit of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares but more focusing on the actual business relationships. I shot season two of NBC's Food Fighters, so it's a professional chef against a home chef. So will I win this time? Who knows! So it's great doing that, tidbits here and there.
I'm doing a food festival called Harvest Fest in upstate New York, so I'm doing a dinner for 150 people and I'm cooking it all sous vide. Most of the meal is cooked sous vide, which is kind of scary because I haven't done it for 150 people. I do it all the time for 10 or 20 people. Yeah, I do like a challenge! And I'm doing my YouTube show right now, so if you follow me on YouTube you can see that. I post a recipe once a week. It's just in my apartment - me at home with the two dogs that's it!
I also have a cookbook coming out next year as well, The Quick Six Fix. It's six ingredients, minimal prep, minimal clean-up. That was kind of an idea that's always been going around in my head: what is it that people really want? And, of course, everybody wants easy recipes. It's very easy to say that, but I really wanted a book that was really true, like the recipes really showcased what the title of the book was. It probably took me about four years to really come to a point where I felt like, 'Right now, I'm ready to do a book'. It will be out here in Ireland. I think it comes out next spring in America and then it will follow in Ireland that Christmas. I didn't want it just coming out in America, so I made sure that it'd be coming out in Ireland because it's too important to me!
So you've cooked for huge numbers but you also cater for quite small parties too. With Barrack Obama - tell us what happened there?
The Obama thing, they asked me to cook and stuff. But that happened two, three years ago and I had broken my arm off the motorcycle and I couldn't do it! It was the worst! It was approved; the menu was approved, everything was approved. I could've probably went ahead and done it, but with a broken arm, I'm like, 'Nothing can go wrong if I do that party - it just can't!'.
Cindy Crawford, I did her birthday about a year ago. She was amazing. The Kardashians, I got down to the house and did an event for them with Nintendo. It was fun. It was a while ago but it was a good experience. She [Kim] was really nice to me!
Did Kim eat at all?
Oh yeah, yeah. She loves food! It was great to meet them to see who they were.
And would you ever get nervous cooking for any of these super famous people?
Not really, it's second nature now. They really are just regular people. They're not highly demanding - I don't find anyway!
To check out a selection of delicious lamb recipes, go to: http://www.tastyeasylamb.ie/Recipes.
You can see Stuart in action at the Taste of Dublin this Saturday, June 13. For more information on tickets, go to: http://dublin.tastefestivals.com.
