How to whip up a classic carbonara

HE may be a multi-award-winning chef with every ingredient at his fingertips, but Mark Moriarty loves to cook simple and wholesome dishes when he’s off the clock and not in his chef whites.

The new series, Mark Moriarty: Off Duty Chef on RTÉ1 on Wednesday at 8.30pm aims to inspire and encourage the home cook to get the foundations of cookery right.

Mark will be sharing his professional kitchen experience in his ‘How to Perfect’ series, where he’ll be covering everything from knife skills and butchery to how to master simple but effective egg and fish dishes.

In the first episode, he begins with a classic Carbonara with a cheffy trick for serving up, then it’s onto one of his favourites, a deliciously simple yet elegant carrot cake.

In his ‘How to Perfect’ segment, he demonstrates why he only ever uses two knives at home, and will be bringing it back to basics with some very useful knife skills.

To put these skills to good use, Mark will be whipping up Individual shepherd’s pies, peas with mint, lemon and feta.

Since his first TV series in 2019, Mark has been praised for his simple and professional yet down-to-earth approach to cookery and Off Duty Chef really speaks to this, think of it as your favourite dishes, taught to you by a Michelin star chef in your home kitchen.

‘Notions’ are left at the door, but of course, you can expect Mark to bring your dishes to the next level with his plating up suggestions and techniques on how to impress your dinner guests or your family!

Each episode focuses on three key recipes, and future ones will include slow-cooked meatballs with glazed garlic butter pappardelle; Southern-fried monkfish chip butties; salted caramel custard pots with peanuts and cherries; mushroom parmesan spaghetti’ and melting chocolate fondants.