The Irish chef, television personality, and CEO of Waterford Festival of Food juggles family life with both her catering business and award-winning gourmet takeaway restaurant, AndChips in Dungarvan. She’s now adding Weekend food columnist to the CV.

“It’s quite a commitment,” she says, “but I’m up to the challenge. I’ll be sharing two recipes every week and mainly concentrating on savoury main courses.”

Having previously worked in the food business in Ireland, the UK, and Switzerland, Power launched her gourmet catering company in 2004. But whether it’s cooking for two or 2,000, she cooks the kind of food people actually want to eat.

“I know what it’s like to cook for your family when you’re up against it; that’s something I can really relate to. You go for the old reliables, but every now and then you want to change things up a little bit. What I hope is some of those changer uppers become part of your daily routine.”

Seasonality and accessibility

Seasonality is also a big focus for the Waterford native.

“I always think about what I’d like to eat now, what’s in season and accessible. That way, people can say, ‘I can do that’. I hope that I’m going to give them a little inspiration to try something new.

“I’m also trying to get people to look at different meat, other than beef and chicken. I’d love people to be eating rabbits because my garden’s full of them at the moment and they’re destroying the place! But I have some vegetarian dishes too. I think, as a country, we need a little bit of inspiration to not eat meat all the time.”

No stranger to recipe compilations, last year Power penned her first cookbook, My Irish Kitchen Table, and has been overwhelmed by the response to date.

“A lot of people buy cookery books and don’t cook from them, but I know people are cooking from it because they tell me. It’s just brilliant. Like with this column, there’s a little twist on the traditional.”

As an enthusiastic everyday cook and the owner of a busy food business, Power needs to be price-conscious and promises to serve up affordable inspiration.

“People can expect to see a lot of things like chicken thighs, which are one of my favourite things to cook with and they’re really reasonably priced. The price of food has gone through the roof. I’ve noticed it, both in business and in my own personal shopping. And it’s down to all kinds of things.

“When the Ukraine war broke out, flour went through the roof. And once something’s gone up, it doesn’t really come down again. Even potatoes are expensive. I opened AndChips in 2019, and since then the price of potatoes — I’m not sure if it’s doubled, but it’s substantially higher.”

Planning, using recipes, and avoiding food waste is how Power tackles rising costs. “Try not to throw out anything,” she says. “Have a few go-to recipes like a soup or a frittata that use up leftover food. After the weekend, we often have a bit of dried-out sourdough, and the other day I toasted the bread, put cream cheese on it, grated everything I have in the fridge, put it on top, and baked it in the oven, and the kids were delighted with it. And you know, when you’ve got young fellows who are looking for calories, it’s perfect. But try and use up your food because we are all guilty of waste.”

A love of food

The daughter of a farmer and home economics teacher, Power’s childhood was a sound introduction into the joy of food and the importance of provenance.

“The food was lovely as a child, things like a big roast chicken on a Sunday. And sometimes a heifer was killed or whatever animal. And my mother would dread seeing them coming because you got it warts and all, but I loved it and remember all the seasonal food. I remember Dad bringing in mushrooms in his cap in September.

“Now, people are so spoiled, they have food all year round. They don’t understand seasonality. I find it almost infuriating, all this white noise about seasonal food on Instagram. Of course, food follows the sun, so you can’t expect to get summer vegetables in winter in Ireland. It just doesn’t happen. If you want to eat seasonally, eat seasonally. If you want your bread buttered on both sides, then you have to accept we are importing food.”

Power is particularly impassioned when talking about shopping close to home.

“Buying locally, buying Irish means you’re supporting your community and you’re keeping people in jobs and in business. Irish Yogurts in Clonakilty is the largest producer of yogurt in the country. It’s the biggest employer in Clonakilty.

“By buying their yogurt, you’re buying into keeping a community employed and together. When there’s employment in the community, it knocks off everywhere else because there’s money floating around.

“Take my fish and chip shop in Dungarvan, and if people weren’t employed in Dungarvan, I wouldn’t have an all-year-round business. And I wouldn’t be able to employ people. Putting a little bit of thought into your shopping basket is really important and it has a resounding impact on your community and on Irish people as a society.”