"COOKING should be joyful, not stressful." This is the message Portstewart-based chef and food writer Paula McIntyre hopes to convey to viewers of her new television series.
"I want to get across that cooking should be enjoyed and if you mess up, it really doesn't matter," laughs the enthusiastic 53-year-old.
Having trained in culinary arts at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, USA, McIntyre opened her own restaurant, The Undrie in Manchester in 1998, picking up several awards for fine dining.
Returning to Ireland in 1998, she worked as head chef at Ghan House in Carlingford and Fontana in Holywood.
Media appearances quickly followed, including Ready, Steady, Cook, Taste for Adventure and BBC NI's Summer Season programme with Eamonn Holmes.
Since 2004, she has hosted the cooking slot on Radio Ulster's weekly Saturday Magazine show with John Toal, where her down-to-earth attitude and passion for cooking has earned her a loyal fanbase.
Next up is Paula McIntyre's Hamely Kitchen, coming fresh to BBC One tonight, in which she will be sharing her love for cooking and showcasing all the fresh, local ingredients Northern Ireland has to offer.
She will also be leaving the kitchen to meet with local suppliers, including fishing for ling near the Skerries with fisherman Richard Connor, meeting a member of a co-operative brewery making real ales and a young farming couple from Bushmills who are raising heritage breeds of pigs using traditional farming methods, as well as a friend who is passionate about beekeeping.
To Paula, a 'hamely kitchen' is a place "where there's food cooked with soul and where she spoils friends and family".
"We have such wonderful produce in this part of the world and I'm delighted to be able to show it off in this TV series. To be able to film it on my own doorstep has been an absolute joy," she says.
Living beside the Atlantic Ocean, Paula loves nothing more than to be at one with nature and finds solace by fishing or sea swimming.
"Fishing is so relaxing. You're simply looking at the sea and concentrating on getting a little pull on the line. Similarly, when swimming in the sea you are one with the elements."
Surprisingly, perhaps, her favourite time of the year to take the plunge is winter. "I love when the beach is covered in snow and you are lying on your back in the sea looking up at the heavens with snowflakes beating down on your face.
"You never feel more alive than when you come out from a winter swim," enthuses Paula who reaches for her hot water bottle and a warm drink after, followed by a boiled egg or soup back home.
Pre-Covid, Paula's work involved a lot of travel, but the pandemic has afforded her the time to get back to basics and experiment with new recipes and techniques, in her specially made test kitchen cabin at the back of her home.
During this time she also made a number of promotional videos for Taste Causeway (of whom she is an ambassador) and the Ulster-Scots Agency, as well as cooking for private parties in people's homes and setting up Cook and the Farmer Supper Club events in the Arcadia, Portrush.
"Before, a lot of my work would have been doing demos, so it's been great to get back into cooking for larger groups of people again and having burns on my arms. I've really fallen in love with cooking all over again," she says.
Despite her refreshed enthusiasm, Paula couldn't be tempted to fill the current shortage of chefs in our hospitality industry.
"I have been there and done that and don't want to go back to the restaurant business," she says.
"I have chefs ringing me up crying asking if I know anyone who could cover shifts for them. I feel bad for them."
The humble turnip is a vegetable which Paula is "on a mission" to get people eating again, and in episode one of Hamely Kitchen Paula makes a Glens of Antrim lamb roast with a caramel and vinegar glaze and two side dishes: turnip cake and turnip gratin.
"I think everyone should love turnip - and hopefully I will convert a few."
The episode also features brined braised Denver cut of beef with a nettle and onion crust served on a barley risotto.
Generous in handing out advice to viewers, Paula reminds them to rest the meat for 10 minutes before seasoning.
And the reason?
"If you take it out of the oven and cut it straight away you are going to lose all the juices. It's the same with chicken and fish. People often complain that meat is tough or dry – it's not – you just need to let it relax first."
When it comes to her best culinary advice, Paula recalls the words of an Italian chef friend.
"He told me that 90 per cent of Italian food is shopping and 10 per cent is cooking. I agree and believe that the biggest part of cooking is using good ingredients and letting them speak for themselves.
"If you have a really nice piece of meat there is not a lot you have to do with it. At this time of year the spuds are fantastic, so just let them steam in their jackets and toss in a good bit of butter.
"When I first started cheffing I wanted to put everything on the plate and show off all these techniques and half the time it was just a mess. But with experience and security you get to know that cooking is about simplicity and sourcing good ingredients."
Viewers will also see Paula show that ingredients don't even have to cost money, as she forages for nettles, wild garlic, elderberries and blackcurrants.
"They are a unique taste to the place you are picking them from. So a blackberry in Portstewart will taste different to a blackberry from Armagh or Fermanagh.
"At the moment we are coming to the end of the meadowsweet, that fluffy herb flower you see at the edge of roads. It has a vanilla, marzipan taste so it's like a natural sweetener. Last year I made meadowsweet and redcurrant jelly which is lovely for glazing strawberries."
Other tempting dishes in forthcoming episodes include barbecued langoustines, roasted onion and wild garlic soup and a rhubarb and blackcurrant 'traybake' with cider custard.
And whilst she wouldn't rule out doing another TV series, Paula is adamant she doesn't want to become the next Mary Berry or Prue Leith and judge a cookery programme.
"I don't like those shows. Cooking should never be a competition. What I do love is Chef's Table on Netflix, especially the one on Asma Khan who owns Darjeeling Express in London.
"I went into her restaurant for lunch and was star struck when she came out of the kitchen to meet me," she laughs.
Asma doesn't make Paula's dream dinner party guest list however, as she plans to do the cooking herself.
"I would have Bette Midler, James Taylor and Barack Obama and we would eat lobster from Portstewart."
Paula McIntyre's Hamely Kitchen begins today on BBC One Northern Ireland at 7.35pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer. All recipes from the series will be available at bbc.co.uk/hamelykitchen.
