'So you're moving to America?" "Yeah we are . . . we're going for a year and . . . and see how it goes . . ." I trail off because I can hear the uncertainty in my voice. The truth is I have no idea how long I'll be away. It could be a year but it could five. On the horizon I see opportunities for a career there but there is a big part of me that belongs to Ireland.
In nine years I’ve gone from “failed pop band member” – as critics love to point out – to carving out a career in cooking that has taken me around the world learning more about my craft, writing cookbooks, presenting TV shows and honing my skills as a food photographer. All the while I was building a home and a life with Sofie, my then girlfriend now wife, who oversees every aspect of our business.
We could never have imagined what would happen after a simple conversation about the merits of me starting a food blog. As a 21-year-old thrown into a career, I scrambled to learn how to write about food, produce it and photograph it for a cookbook. I learned about food writing and TV presenting through making mistakes, falling down, getting back up, holding on tight and pushing forward. Without those lessons, I would never have had the confidence to move to the United States. I may not know what lies ahead, but I know I have to give it a go.
Our initiation into the Californian lifestyle has begun in a cosy Airbnb rental in the hipster heart of Venice Beach, which is a melting pot of ridiculously over-priced juiceries, coffee houses and uber-cool clothes shops.
Our home from home, while we hunt for a rental close by, has left us with one main limitation from a home cook’s point of view: I have no oven.
This minor setback has resulted in some creative stove-top cooking while I try to savour Los Angeles’s eclectic food scene that manages to take in everything from Korean BBQ, to food trucks and great authentic Mexican food.
The recipes shared here are a nod to my first week in the Sunshine State: made-in-minutes Mexican breakfast eggs, which will no doubt set the eyes of real Mexican cooks rolling, but provide the irresistible combination of warm corn tortillas, creamy avocado, spicy salsa and fresh bite from lime and coriander (or cilantro as it is known here).
Also on the menu is my kitchen saviour, a genius all-in-one pan pasta, perfect for a solitary stove-top supper and inspired by America’s favourite homemaker, Martha Stewart, and a recipe for addictive buttermilk chicken buns.
