Donal Skehan is a 23 year old home cook who writes and photographs food for a living. He has been cooking from an early age and inspired by a family of foodies, food quickly became a way of life. During his teens he worked with his aunt Erica Ryan, one of Ireland’s top food stylists, and got the chance to work alongside some of Ireland’s top food photographers including Jocasta Clarke and Walter Pfeiffer.
After a brief stint as a chef in Sweden, Donal returned to Ireland to start his very own food blog, thegoodmoodfoodblog.com where he writes about his food adventures and recipes everyday. After only 6 months blogging, he was approached by Irish publishing house, Mercier Press to write a cookbook based around the recipes on the blog.
Good Mood Food was released in October 2009 and received fantastic reviews from editor of Food & Wine Magazine, – Ross Golden-Bannon – “Good Mood Food is a new breed of cookbook that springs from the talent of a passionate home cook. A truly scrumptious read.”, Paulo Tullio – “At last… Simple, easy recipes that are healthy and interesting. Donal Skehan’s book reclaims good food from the convenience of supermarket shelves and puts it back where it belongs – in the domestic kitchen.” and RTE.ie, described him as “Ireland’s answer to Jamie Oliver”. In November 2010, Good Mood Food won the Irish Published Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.
Donal’s TV and radio appearances include Ireland AM, The Afternoon Show, ICE, Nationwide_ and Market Kitchen in the UK, The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show and The Tubridy Show. Donal also writes a weekly column in The Cork News, a monthly column in the Irish Independent and Irish Tatler magazine and updates his blog with new recipes on a daily basis. In March 2010, Donal won the award for Best Food/Drink Blog at the Irish Blog Awards in Galway.
In the same month, Donal flew to Paris to cater for 700 people at an event called Vielle Foodstock organised by Parisian magazine, Le Fooding, sponsored by Bord Bia and Jameson Whiskey. The event was a huge success and was widely covered in the French media. He has also been doing a number of food demonstrations, including Taste of Dublin, Africa Day and Bloom.
Donal is currently working on his second cookbook which will be published by Harper Collins in March 2011 and will coincide with his first tv series on RTE.
Aside from the culinary world, Donal has also had 2 number one singles in the Irish music charts as a member of pop group Industry and has also supported the Pussycat Dolls and JLS on their Irish tours.