A Taste for LIFE
The social-media star and his partner and co-author, William Murray, reveal their foodie obsessions ahead of the launch of their first cookbook
James Kavanagh and William Murray
“My mother made sure I knew how to cook an egg... Once you know that, you can do it all!”
What did your mother make you?
William (pictured far right): Fresh mackerel on the barbecue, usually eaten with our fingers on a late-summer evening. In the winter, the best, most soothing chicken broths were made to last the week.
The meal you will always remember?
William: My mother’s 50th birthday, in 2006, in Chez Youen in Baltimore, Cork. It’s the last proper dining-out experience I can remember with my sister, Jenny, being there. Tragically, she passed away at the age of 19. James (pictured right): An amazing dinner in Ballymaloe House. The late, great Myrtle Allen came around with the dessert trolley and served us. It was a gorgeous evening.
What was your defining food experience?
William: Growing up in a community — Currabinny in Cork — where everyone shared their food knowledge and where lots of ingredients were grown or caught. James: My mother making sure I knew how to cook an egg when I was young. Once you know that, you can do it all!
What is your comfort food?
William: A creamy pasta with peas, lardons and loads of grated cheese. James: I’m with William on this. We make creamy pasta a lot. You can’t beat it.
You can only eat three things for the rest of your life, what are they?
William: Bread; cheese; butter. James: Same as William. They are the holy trinity of food.
How important is food to you?
William: Food is the thing everything else has to fall into place around. My days are planned around eating, when and where. James: I eat for pleasure, and I like lots of pleasure in my life. If you were to analyse my brain, 95pc is devoted to thinking about food.
What’s always in your kitchen?
William: Jars and jars of things I’ve only used once or twice. Pomegranate molasses, anyone?
Favourite restaurant in Ireland?
William: For reliability and explosions of decadence and taste, I would have to pick Etto on Merrion Row in Dublin. For innovation, excitement, a step into the new, I would pick sitting at the chef ’s table in Miyazaki’s ichigo ichie in Cork. James: Forest & Marcy on Upper Leeson Street. It’s always a total treat.
And abroad?
William: Nostra in Iceland was mind-blowing. James: I have to agree with William on Nostra. Each dish featured an ingredient cooked in three or more different ways. It was incredible. The bill was incredible too... Jaysus. We ate very simply for the rest of the trip.
What is your guilty pleasure?
William: Tinned tuna. James: I love a McDonald’s. I feel no guilt about it. I can enjoy a highbrow meal one day, and eat a Big Mac another day.
What’s your perfect family meal?
William: Roast chicken with all the trimmings. James: The same. With proper gravy. Hook it up to my veins. ‘The Currabinny Cookbook’ is published by Penguin Ireland and is nominated for an Irish Book Award. See irishbookawards.irish/vote to vote for William and James.