On The Town: Smoked eel and salmon produced by Ummera in West Cork are among the favourite foods of Éamonn Ó Catháin.
Around Ireland with a pan - Food, Tales and Recipes, a book by the chef, broadcaster, writer and musician was launched in Odessa Restaurant in Dublin this week.
He's "a wild spirit", said one friend, Katherine Garnier, who works at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud.
Lachen Iouani, chef and proprietor of The Old Mill restaurant in Dublin's Temple Bar, says he's "a very cosmopolitan Irishman, he's talented in many ways . . . a genuine bon vivant".
Among the guests who came to applaud the writer were Rachel Ní Mhuircheartaigh, director of Ó Catháin's television series on TG4, Bia 's Bóthair. The crew has just returned from Eastern Europe where they recorded the fourth series. "He's able to deal very well with television. Maybe it's from working in a kitchen . . . it's a similar kind of business, you have to make a lot of it up as you go along," she said.
The book was launched by food and wine critic, Tom Doorley, who also features on the RTÉ series The Restaurant. He recalled eating in Ó Catháin's restaurant, Shay Beano, in the early 1980s. "It was like a beacon in those days. I used to save up to go there," he said.
Friends from Dingle in Co Kerry, Mícheál O'Hare and Gerry Kennedy, a butcher, who sells lamb from the Blasket Islands, were at the party too.
Ó Catháin said he was interested in food from a young age. "When I was five I was looking for flavours and tastes. I was obsessed with it. I loved trying to cook," said the chef turned broadcaster.
Around Ireland with a pan - Food, Tales and Recipes by Éamonn Ó Catháin is published by Liberties Press. Price €14.95