Multicultural cookery show in the can!

‘Fusion Kitchen’ – a new cookery show, hosted by TV chef, Tara Walker, is ‘in the can’. The six part series, funded by Coimisiún na Meán with support from Maeve Harkin and the SICAP team at Louth Local Development, saw chefs and cooking enthusiasts from six different nations cook recipes from their homelands for each other in the state-of-the-art kitchen at Tara Walker Food in Termonfeckin.

“It’s probably my favourite project in a long career of film and television,” said director and series creator Declan Cassidy. “The food was spectacular, with such diversity from week to week, but the sense of camaraderie between the participants was wonderful to see. It really brought it home to me that, no matter where you come from, we all have friendship, laughter and, of course, the love of food in common.”

The six countries represented were Ukraine, India, Brazil, Ireland, South Korea and Nigeria and, while the dishes cooked by the participants were genuine recipes from their cultures, much of the ingredients used were local, seasonal and sustainable – an ethos very much promoted by Tara, who was both host for the series and mentor for the particpants.

“It was great to work with a professional like Tara,” said Declan. “She has such an in-depth knowledge of food that she was able to speak about each dish with authority and she also had a knack at putting the person whose turn it was to cook at ease. After all, the participants were not just representing their own talents as chefs, but they were representing their countries, so the pressure was on.”

In the spirit of inclusion that underpinned the series, the production team was selected through local non-profit community media organisation, EurAV who offer free content creation training through their Drogheda studio.

“There are a lot of very talented people who just need to get their foot onto the career ladder,” explained Declan. “Working with EurAV made that possible on this project.”

The series has now moved into the editing phase and is expected to screen on Virgin Media channel 802, Dublin Community Television, as well as on their streaming platform, DCTV.ie, in Autumn.