Name Eamonn Cathain | Role Chef | |
amonn cath in oideas glasr nach
Éamonn Ó Catháin is an Irish chef, author, journalist and broadcaster, and authority on folk music.
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Originally from Belfast he lived for many years in Dublin where he ran Shay Beano, a French bistro. He participates in Irish daytime television programmes conducting cookery demonstrations on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). One vehicle, called "Meal or no Meal", is a spoof on Noel Edmonds's Deal or no Deal. Ó Catháin picks five numbered red boxes from a mystery choice of 15. Each box contains one ingredient, and when all five are chosen, the challenge is set for him to come up with either a meal or no meal, by the end of the show. Another programme, on TG4, Bia Bóthar, is a travelogue of coastal Ireland and Europe, presented entirely in Irish with English subtitles where he cooks a meal, usually outdoors, from local ingredients.
He also broadcast a radio show on world music on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. It was called Thar Tír Isteach and went out on Friday nights, concentrating on music from Russia, Poland, Portugal, Africa, Brazil and various other “new Irish” communities now resident in recently multicultural Ireland.
He is multilingual, speaking Irish, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Scottish and Welsh. His three books are The Irish Folk Music Guide (1981), Around Ireland With a Pan - Food, Tales and Recipes (2004) and The Hard Times Cook Book (2009). He is currently writing a tome on technology and is a frequent Tweeter (https://twitter.com/culabula) and Facebooker. At one time he had 15 mobile phones in an attempt to thwart exorbitant roaming charges in Europe. He prefers to travel by train.
He is married.