Award-winning chef Mark Moriarty is bringing the second series of Cook Like a Chef to RTÉ One, Mondays at 8.00pm, sponsored by M&S.
This year, Mark puts one standout ingredient centre stage in each of the seven episodes (chicken, potato, tomato, mushroom, beef, lamb, and salmon), transforming the hero product into three delicious dishes that will keep households fed and happy.
In the first episode, for example, he looks at how chicken can be transformed into three mouth-watering dinners: Chicken Schnitzel with Fried Egg and a Caesar Salad, Chicken & Mushroom Pan Pie, and a classic Chicken Chausseur.
"It's based [around] ingredients that we either have in our fridge already, or we know exactly where they are in the supermarket," he promises.
Although he spent years working in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants, Moriarty says that his focus for the television series is squarely on the experience of the home cook.
As well as making his recipes easy to follow, he hopes to reduce food waste and keep the washing up to a minimum by using his own family dinners as inspiration.
"Everything I eat and everything I make - week in, week out - I keep an eye on," he explains. "The chicken pan pie in episode one came from me being at home with a pre-cooked chicken from the supermarket that I needed to make a dinner out of!"
As well as sharing easy-to-follow recipes, he will hand down some handy chef tricks that will elevate the most basic meal and save some money in the process.
"It's not just about cooking techniques and seasoning, it's also about making your money go further," he insists.
"The chef's mindset is: how do we make every cent count? And with those cents we have, how do we make it taste as delicious as possible, but still make it as quickly as possible?"
The cookbook author says that the techniques on the show will be as simple as possible to encourage even the most amateur cook to try something a little different.
"It's about taking a very functional meal to something that is packed with seasoning but is taking you maybe 30 seconds extra," he says.
If you bought a pot of Dijon mustard for your ham and cheese toasties, for example, consider adding it to a bit of sauce or even some spaghetti to elevate your Monday night dinner.
"Those are the things that resonate with people," he continues. "I think it's these effortless little finishing moves that just make your everyday food taste that little bit better."
With this season, he predicts the most popular recipes to be the chicken pan pie, the rich spaghetti beef bolognese, the panzanella tomato salad, and the "ridiculously nice" mashed potatoes.
As well as talking through the recipes, Moriarty will spend some time in each episode introducing viewers to some of the farmers, growers and producers bringing our food from farm to fork.
Through their conversations, the TV chef will show us why seasonality, care and craftsmanship make all the difference when it comes to our cooking.
"I wanted to give a bit of a sense of the food system and the food chain," he explains.
"I think there's often an idea that if you want to buy from an Irish producer, that it's going to cost you more or that it's a bespoke, high-end ingredient, but it doesn't have to be," he adds, noting that many Irish supermarkets will stock homegrown produce - you just have to keep an eye out for it.
For Moriarty, Cook Like a Chef is less about telling people what to do and more about showing them their options.
"In many supermarkets, you can pick a high-quality tomato from Kilbush in North County Dublin, made by two brothers, [whose family] have been doing it for over 100 years," he insists.
"When you choose Irish, it's better for the whole food system."
Watch Cook Like a Chef Mondays on RTÉ One. Catch up on RTÉ Player.
