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, 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.
Donal started his very own food blog, thegoodmoodfoodblog.com in 2007 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 Tulio - "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".
Donal's TV and radio appearances include , Four Live, Ireland AM, The Afternoon Show, ICE, Nationwide and Market Kitchen in the UK, The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show and The Tubridy Show.
In March 2010, Donal flew to Paris to cater for 700 people at an event called Vielle Foodstock organised by Parisien magazine, Le Fooding sponsored by Bord Bia and Jameson Whiskey. The event was a huge success and was widely covered in the French media. The same week Donal flew back to Ireland just in time to win the award for Best Food/Drink Blog at the Irish Blog Awards in Galway.
Donal is currently working on his second cookbook, "Kitchen Hero", all the recipes for which he has photographed himself, and is filming a 13 part series for RTE to be aired in 2011. Donal also writes a weekly column in The Cork News, a monthly column in the Irish Independent and Irish Tatler magazine and demonstrates recipes on his weekly slot on RTÉ's 4Live show.
Aside from the culinary world Donal has also had 2 number one singles ("My Baby's Waiting" June 2009 and "Burn" August 2009) 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.
