The Tipperary accent can bring you a long way. Sure they go mental for the Irish lilt in LA.”

Followed by a big booming laugh, it becomes apparent very quickly that Stuart O’Keeffe is great craic, no two ways about it. All the Hollywood notions I feared were non-evident and if they are there, they certainly got lost in the phone waves across the Atlantic.

“I have to do this weird kind of fusion of accents,” he admits. “When I first arrived in LA, sometimes I wasn’t getting gigs because they couldn’t understand me, so it was like going back to elocution lessons as a child. I had to slow it right down, pronounce so the American audience could understand me but, at the same time, keep the Irish lilt going.”

Private Chefs of Beverly Hills

When Stuart is talking about gigs, the celebrity chef isn’t on about a few cookery shows on some unknown satellite station. We’re talking the Private Chefs of Beverly Hills on the Food Network. We’re talking about cooking for celebrity clients such as Sharon Stone, Owen Wilson, Hilary Swank and the Kardashians. We’re talking about being the national American spokesperson for Tupperware and 10,000 copies of his cookbook The Quick Six Fix selling in just seven minutes. The list goes on and on. To put it simply, this Irish boy has done good.

Like many Irish chefs, he credits his mammy for his love of food. Born in Limerick but raised in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Stuart said he had no interest in school and shudders when talking about the Leaving Cert.

“I became fascinated with all that it took to construct a meal and the homework was often abandoned to help mum or my aunt bake a cake or make a pie.”

After studying culinary arts in DIT, Stuart literally finished his last exam and hopped on a plane to the States.

“All my friends had done the J1 and I always wanted to live there. I flew out, got a job in Napa Valley and that was the start and end of it really. That and the fact that I worked my butt off to get where I am.”

The Big Break

“That’s the thing,” says Stuart, “everyone you talk to out here has slogged away to get where they are. There is no magic Hollywood moment, no definitive day. It is years and years of hard graft. I was talking to Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family recently and he said the same thing. To get on a show like that took 10 years of auditions.

“For me, I’m here now over a decade and I finally think it is coming together for me. I am working on a kids cookery show called Stove Tots which is really fun.”

The phone was also beeping with someone trying to get him on the Food Network Star, a sort of X-Factor for chefs on the Food Network. When asked if he was going to do it, he said: “I’m considering my options. It’s a great show with good exposure. I hate competing with chefs on shows like that though, I find it daunting but exciting.”

Savour Kilkenny

Although he has such a hectic schedule in Hollywood, that doesn’t stop Stuart flying back and forth to Ireland. During the summer, he was flicking through Irish Country Living Food at the Taste of Dublin and he is home again this weekend for the Savour Kilkenny festival.

“I try to get home as often as possible. Edward Hayden is on the committee of Savour Kilkenny and last year asked me over and I just loved it. It pulls a really good crowd. Mammy and dad come so we have a family weekend and sure it’s the October bank holiday so everyone is in a great mood. It’s one of my favourite food festivals.” This, coming from a man who has done demos at the Disney World Food Festival and the Palm Springs Food and Wine Festival right in the middle of the desert, says a lot.

“It’s the food I love most – the sausages, jams, chutney, all that local artisan food. I think we do that so well in Ireland, especially looking from the outside in.

“Every time I come home, there seems to be more and more people popping up with great stories. I see a huge difference from when I used come home 10 years ago compared to now. I’m sure it’s a message that people hear the whole time but the truth is that it is quite unique and we’re doing the local thing really well here. That sense of local and of artisan isn’t really there in the States. Of course I go to farmers’ markets and the likes but it’s much more mass produced.”

Food Trends

According to Stuart, we are also catching on to food trends much faster. In the past, it was taking about four or five years for trends to make their way across the Atlantic but now that time span is a lot quicker due to social media.

“Poke bowls have been really big here over the last year or two. It’s a Hawaiian dish that is something akin to a sushi roll in a bowl with cubed raw fish and plenty of fresh vegetables – super healthy.”

Stuart seems suitably impressed that Irish Country Living featured a poke recipe earlier this year, prepared by Niall Sabongi from Klaw restaurant in Dublin.

“I would expect to see more of that trend spreading outside of restaurants in Dublin city centre and into other cities and towns. What is also pretty big at the moment is the idea of a meal delivery service where you sign up and they ship a box to you with the ingredients for four dinners for the week. Everything is weighed out for you and the recipe is provided, so it’s just a matter of combining everything together.

“It’s really taking off in the States and it wouldn’t surprise me if it is embraced even more in Ireland because, as a nation, we really are much more inclined to cook than the Americans. Now I know there are probably a load of Irish mammies thinking it is a ridiculous idea, wouldn’t you just go to the shop and buy the ingredient’s yourself, but for professionals who are cash rich but time poor and yet still want to create a healthy dinner, it’s a really convenient option.”

If there was one food trend that Stuart could introduce in the States, what would it be?

“Oh God, a good chipper. Of course I also miss the Irish breakfasts, the sausages and pudding and brown bread, but what I really, really miss is the local chipper, Mamma’s Pizzeria, in Nenagh. Their batter sausages – wow – and they do the best chips and curry sauce. No matter what I do, I can’t recreate it. In a way, I don’t really want to – it is my treat when I go home.” CL

Savour Kilkenny

27 - 30 October

The number of exhibitors has grown sixfold since the Savour Kilkenny Festival of Food began in 2006. From just 15 stallholders, there are now over 100, making Savour Kilkenny one of Ireland’s largest and most popular food festivals. Highlights include:

• Cookery demonstrations.

• Medieval food and craft village.

• Gunpowder gin mixology class.

• Savour Kilkenny taster trail.

Stuart’s latest book, The Quick Six Fix, is available now from all good book stores.