Donal Skehan: “There’s a new chapter coming, I feel it”

He should be exhausted. With all he has going on, with all the fingers he has in all the many pies, we don’t know when this 39-year-old finds the time to sleep. But sleep, he does. In fact, it’s the full eight hours Donal Skehan gets in his cottage by the sea in Sutton, Co.  Dublin.

“Bed at 9pm – all going well”, he chortles, “and up at the crack of dawn with Sofie and the boys, [Noah (7) and Oliver (5)]”.

Bed early is Donal’s recipe, not necessarily for success – he would never be so smug as to say that – but it is the thing that sustains him, balancing work and family life through these wildly busy days.

Inspired by this very busyness comes his new cookbook and accompanying TV series Donal’s Real Time Recipes (Wednesdays, 8.30pm, RTÉ One).

“I have a low attention span”, he explains, “I need recipes that will perform in 30 minutes or less! I don’t have time at this moment in my life for sourdough starters! I have a 30-minute window, it’s that type of cooking,” he smiles as Noah and Oliver race past. “Slow down”, he pleads after them, as they tear away up the corridors of Howth Castle, where this busy shoot is taking place today.

Slowing down is something Donal is chasing after. Finding his “flow states” in the likes of yoga and pottery making, which he is actively practicing he tells us, are telltale signs of someone on the hunt for a new way to be. “I think this year’s lesson is to not have too many fingers in too many pies”, he says, thinking, as we consider his production company, his collaboration with Dunnes, his million-plus followers on YouTube, his own curated pantry essentials and coastal-inspired homeware line, Wind Shore.

“A new chapter is coming. I don’t know exactly what that chapter will look like, but I’m really excited about what’s next”.

We talk about it all…and some more after a day spent chasing boys – and light – in this moody medieval castle, a short drive from their home by the sea…

Another gorgeously wild family shoot, Donal! What do these shoots do to your blood pressure?!
This one in particular wasn’t so bad, as we weren’t in our actual home! Our actual home is driving me bananas at the moment! It’s getting smaller by the minute, and the boys are getting bigger by the minute! Howth Castle just gave us the run of the place. It was great not to be on top of each other.

You got good news today, though. Planning permission has been granted for your house by the seaside in Sutton, Co. Dublin.
We’re absolutely thrilled. We’ve been there three years now, the plan was always to expand. The boys are in bunk beds, and their feet are touching off the walls at this stage, so it’s timely. And VIP, you’ve been in the cottage – it’s tight [it is]. What it has given us is fantastic memories, and I do think there’s something lovely about living in a house before you do anything to it because you can really understand the light and the way you move around it. But we’re excited now, it’s a bit of a dream project. We’re hoping to start things next year.

Have you got an idea what you want to do? You hitting up your pal, architect Dermot Bannon, for inspo?
Yes! For the last three years, we’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about it! The house that we’re in now is very much an old cottage, and the house that we’re building will be a very different modern build. When I watch Home of The Year or Room to Improve, the homes that really speak to me are the ones that have that heart, they’re the ones that have a story, they are places that when you go into a room, you can almost see someone’s personality. I think between all the travels Sofie and I have done, and all the houses we’ve lived in, our plan is to give our home personality and heart, interwoven with history, of course, that links it back to the old.

Howth Castle, as well as being our shoot location, is also doubling up as a bit of office space for you these days, isn’t it?
It is, and what an office! We do plan to do more with them over the next couple of years. We’re planning to hopefully run some events here and a farmer’s market too. It’s an exciting time for Howth Castle, and we’re thrilled to be part of the early conversation about what could come.

We attended your book launch, hosted by your pal and podcast co-host Arthur Gourounlian, there was a great crowd at it, but you were nervous nobody would turn up.
It’s a bit like a birthday party, you’re always nervous no one will come! I’ve no problem getting up and speaking or deciding what we’re going to eat, my issue is always that I feel like I’m plaguing people, asking them to come! But they turned up in their droves, so I had nothing to worry about in the end.

Was it a late night?
We relocated to The Westbury Hotel after the event, and we left there at 2.30am – I think. My head hit the pillow around 3.30am!

And you say you’re a lightweight!
I think that might not be the case anymore!

You’ve been practising?!
I’ve been practising!

Were you suffering on Friday?
I wasn’t too bad. It’s always a lack of sleep that does me in. And sure, of course, the kids were awake from 6.45am onwards. It was a nice three-hour siesta I had!

How much sleep do you need?
I will go to bed at 9pm and I will sleep until at least 6.30am. I need my full eight hours, if not more.

Nine to bed is early.
We always had a good routine with the kids when they were younger. The bedtime routine would usually start around six, and for some reason we just never stopped it! So they’re in bed by 7.30pm each night and it gives us time in the evenings. When I say it to other parents, they’re like, what? They go to bed at 7.30pm! And let me add, they’re happy to go to bed at 7.30pm! I can be reading a bedtime story, and they’ll be nodding off, or I’ll feel their heads heavy on my shoulder. It’s a gift for sure!

All day throughout the shoot Donal, it was, papa, papa, papa! The boys are obsessed with their papa!
Yeah, do you know what, I never thought I’d be a boy dad. I always thought for some reason I’d have girls. It’s been an amazing experience being a boy dad because they are just so brilliant together. My brother and I were four years apart, and we killed each other! But our two are playing the whole time. The only complaint I have is that they have non-stop energy. And yes, I’m delighted to say they love their dad – but they love their mum even more!

They didn’t lick their energy off stones, you’re pretty energetic yourself!
Aw, I don’t know, it’s starting to wane…!

You getting jaded, Donal?!
I am! But any time I ever complain about their energy, everybody turns around to me and says exactly that! I have no one to blame, except myself!

Let’s talk about your new TV series Donal’s Real Time Recipes, which is airing Wednesdays, just before the news at 8.30pm, on RTÉ One. What a slot!
Prime time telly, I know! I met Louis Walsh in the airport the other day when I was on the way over to do This Morning on ITV, and he was like, there’s too much cookery on TV!

There’s not enough! More cookery on TV, please!
People’s appetite for cooking on TV is still massive. In this day and age, we need a balm, we need something to switch off to. I think what this show really aims to do is give a glimmer of inspiration in the drudge of mid-week meals. I know over the years that I speak very clearly to the home cook, that’s who’s cooking my recipes, and because of that it really defines how we make a show and put together a cookbook. It’s a nice series and I think it will connect with a lot of people.

Your TV producer, Brian Walsh, who has worked with you on all your TV shows, spoke so fondly of you at the book launch. He told the assembled crowds that when he first met you years ago that you were, and still are: ambitious, energetic, precocious, affable, friendly and smiley. You are all those things, aren’t you?
The amazing thing about Brian ….[and he goes off on a big spiel about the brilliance of Brian!]

But what about the ambitious, energetic, precocious, affable, friendly and smiley bits Donal, are you all those things?!
You have to be! You have to be to make it in this world, you have to stick your neck out, put your head above the parapet, you have to believe in yourself. I do a lot of talks in schools, and I always say, whatever it is you’re interested in, be passionate about it, and don’t be afraid to be precocious, be the one standing up saying, this is what I love and this is why I love doing it. I saw it with my mum and dad having their own business; they were always pushing themselves, always going the extra mile. I really have a lot of respect for people who do that.

Do you really believe in yourself? Or was it a fake it before you make it situation?
I do believe in myself. In the early days though, I would have listened to the noise of all the grumpy old fellas who’d be giving out about you being on telly when they’d have worked in a restaurant kitchen, or whatever. I should have listened to my inner voice back then more. But I have figured it out in my 30s, and when you figure it out, you can find your security and then there’s less of an insecurity in what you do.

So, the book, your 13th has another 90 family favourite dishes. Does your food inspiration ever run dry?
I’ve a mixed answer to that in that I have a saltimbocca recipe (an Italian dish) in just about every book I’ve ever done because I love saltimbocca so much, and I can’t fathom that someone might end up not experiencing this dish! So, there is a repetition of recipes that I really love, but always with a twist or a tweak, because I do sit and literally look and think and justify why every recipe is in each book. On the flip side though, I have no end to the excitement I have around food. When I travel, there is always something I will see, or I will try, or I will taste, and want to experiment with. So no – inspiration never runs dry.

You say the book and TV show is based on being a lazy cook. But no one could accuse you of ever being lazy!
I have a low attention span, so I need recipes that will perform in 30 minutes or less! I don’t have time at this moment in my life for sourdough starters! I don’t have time for slow braises! I tried to make kombucha recently, I didn’t look after it! I have a 30-minute attention span; it’s that type of cooking! It definitely serves a purpose right now for the stage of life we’re in! So I hope it will speak to people who have a similar issue as me!

But that energy that you do have, do you wear yourself out?
Absolutely, even just take the launch the other night, it was manic and I was chatting continuously. But I do find I’m getting better at realising that I have to build in time after those events to recover. But by the time this issue of VIP is out, I hope I’ll have my routine back and I’ll be back doing yoga. I know I sound like an old fella, but I’m really interested in pottery too!

Pottery? Tell us more!
My friends always slag me about my next fad, but my current fad is pottery! Potteryis like a remedy for the manic energy I have! Yoga and pottery get me in my flow state! I was really into surfing at one point, and that’s a perfect example of a flow state, because you can not do anything but be connected to the waves and the outdoors when on the water. Now more than ever, in the last year of my 30s, I’m very aware I have to build in time to recuperate and recover, because if I don’t, it doesn’t serve me at all. It’s in my interest, and in Sofie’s interest too!

Sofie is the cool cucumber in this outfit, isn’t she?
She always has been. We’re together 20 years, married 10 years, and she’s always been that person. She has never been interested in the celebrity side of things; she won’t bat an eyelid over anything like that, so she absolutely will be the person who will keep you grounded. She has been incredible in the last couple of years in making sure I have that time to switch off. Sofie’s amazing, she’s always been amazing.

Do you work well together?
We do at times, and then we kill each other at times, too! And it’s in those moments, we’re like, okay we need to not be working together for the sanity and sake of the marriage! I think the balance we have now really works.

40 next year, we hear that you are on board already for the mid-life crisis!
If I haven’t already had it! I think the fads are the telltale signs! When I’m doing pottery with jazz music on, I think I’ve arrived – already! Even cooking as an interest is one of those things you imagine really getting into when you retire!

And yet you released your first cookbook so young…
Going over to Saturday Kitchen I meet a lot of people who are releasing their first cookbook at 38 or 39! Nigella Lawson released her first cookbook at 38! I started very young, at 22, and I can kind of see now, in some ways, that there is a new chapter coming. And I don’t know exactly what that chapter will look like, but I’m really excited about what’s next. I think it’s about being a bit more mindful and trying to reduce that manic energy! I’m really interested in the creative side of what I do, the visuals, the photography. I’m taking a course with Annie Atkins who’s the props manager for filmmaker Wes Anderson, she does kids books too.

We think there might be a kids book in you, Donal.
There could be. I do a lot of cookery lessons with kids, and there is so much interest. I was talking to Mick Kelly of GIY (Grow It Yourself), and he’s talking about rolling out these growing programmes in schools. I have been re-reading Manchán Magan’s works since his untimely passing, and thinking about the legacy he has left, and I think there comes a point where you have to look at what you’re doing and ask yourself, is this part of your purpose. And that I really think is where my next 20 years are headed.

Also in your TV production company, Appetite Media?
Yeah, it’s a huge part of what we do. We’re just finishing Eva Pau’s (Eva Pau’s Asian Kitchen) new series, Mark Moriarty’s (Off Duty Chef) too. I, thankfully, for everybody’s sake, take a little step back from that production side of work. I am more part of the concept, the idea, and getting a sponsor on board, and I let my incredible business partners, Marc Dillon and Robin Murray, go and make it all, because they are a well oiled machine. I would drive everyone crazy if I were there!

You’re off to the US soon on a promo trail. Do you sell a good load of books in the States?
Yeah, they sell well. A company called Mobius is our publisher there; they’ve published the last five books. When I was living out there I was doing the promo trail regularly, but I find it harder now to do the hop, skip and a jump because it does disrupt the equilibrium.

You have your finger in so many pies.
Yes, but this year I’m trying to focus on the ones that need most attention – that’s the new plan! My work with Dunnes Stores is very important to me; working on the main range and the content we create for them keeps us very busy. We also have Wind Shore, my curated pantry essentials and coastal-inspired homeware line rooted in the wild beauty of Howth. So, yes, there’s a lot of stuff going on. I think this year’s lesson is to not have too many fingers in too many pies!

We don’t know how you manage to sleep eight hours a night with all you have going on!
I’m wrecked by the time I hit the pillow. Between the boys, the sea air, and work, I pass out! But I couldn’t sleep if we didn’t have a good team around us. It’s down to them. But mostly it’s down to Sofie!

Donal’s Real Time Recipes, published by Hachette, is out now. Donal’s new tv show, Donal’s Real Time Recipes, airs Wednesdays at 8.30pm on RTÉ One.