Edward Hayden admits that one of his best friends describes him as the Daniel O’Donnell of cookery.

“Some people might see that as an insult,” he says. “But I don’t, because Daniel O’Donnell is very successful in his field.”

Edward certainly has a rival fan base. Emails are already coming in from viewers of his weekly Ireland AM cookery slot this morning (Edward was up at 5am to drive to TV3) and it’s only a matter of time before the phone starts hopping.

“There’s a woman in Tullow who rings me and says ‘Edward, you must send me the recipe for lemon biscuits’ and then she might hang up,” he smiles, taking a bite of toast, while a less-virtuous Irish Country Living tries the American triple-layered chocolate fudge cake he made earlier on air.

“Or people might write to me with queries like, how to ice a wedding cake? How long ahead should I make the chocolate biscuit cake? How can I make it smooth? How can I transport it?

“I always give my email address out after any demo and if I know ladies who are not into email, every so often I stick a new recipe in the post for them.”

Maybe it’s this attitude and accessibility that has made the 30-year-old a natural fit for organisations like the ICA (he regularly teaches at An Grianán) as well as the summer and agri-show circuit (he jokes that he had the two most controversial jobs at Iverk, when he judged both the best dressed and cherry cake competitions.)

But it’s clear that he possesses great understanding and empathy for his target market when he talks with such sensitivity about subjects like cooking for one.

“I was speaking to a lady recently who had just buried her husband,” he relates. “She said, ‘We had a great old life and we were the best of pals.’ And now, instead of washing four potatoes every day, she’s washing two. So cooking for one, as well as the whole bother of it, there’s the emotional aspect as well.”

TAKING RISKS

We are chatting in the cosy kitchen of Edward’s family home in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny. The youngest of five children, his mother Sally was a homemaker, while his late father Eddie was a carpenter and sheep farmer.

“So we were all ‘conscripted’ when it came to lambing,” jokes Edward.

As a child he wanted to be one of three things: a teacher, an actor or a chef. He got a firm foundation in the latter while working in a local pub, where “you washed the plates, you washed the toilets and you washed the spuds” (although naturally not in that order).

He briefly flirted with an arts degree before enrolling in a two-year course in professional cookery at Waterford IT. Followed by a part-time degree in culinary arts in Cork and a masters in higher education. He now teaches at WIT himself.

Edward’s mantra for students is to “work in the best place that you can, to learn as much as you can”. He gained his own experience at Dunbrody Country House in Wexford, where he was director of cookery in the school and PA to Kevin Dundon.

In 2008, however, he decided to self-publish his own cookbook, putting approximately €10,000 into the project.

“That was my mortgage at the time, if it were,” he says, joking that he was so proud of the finished product that he thought it was The Book of Kells.

“But it took a while to pay off. Maybe two years before the books were sold.”

He took another risk when he left Dunbrody, to concentrate on building his own career, and contacted Ireland AM to see if they might give him a slot.

“I wrote to them and I rang them and I got no reply,” he recalls. “And I wrote to them, and I rang them and I emailed them and I still got no reply. I was just at the stage where I was saying, ‘Well maybe it’s time to give up’ when one day I got an email to say, ‘There’s a slot on Thursday, will you do it?’”

TWIST ON TRADITION

That was August 2010 and Edward is now part of the furniture on Ireland AM, with a weekly slot. Further success followed when O’Brien Press published Edward’s second cookbook Food To Love in 2011, which went on to win the Kerry Food Book of the Year award, followed by Food For Friends in 2013.

Edward’s style is reassuringly down-to-earth and often involves a twist on traditional staples like pork chops or stewed beef.

“You know the way some chefs say, ‘Get it in your nearest Asian supermarket?’ I’d be thinking, ‘Ok, where is my nearest Asian supermarket?” he laughs. “We’re living in rural Ireland.”

However, he has utmost respect for local producers, including Kitty Colchester (Second Nature rapeseed oil), Mag Kirwan (Goatsbridge trout farm) and Julie Calder Potts (Highbank apple syrup), as well as food heroes like Kathleen Moran of Kilkenny Design.

“Now everybody wants to serve Mary Walsh’s chicken on Nicholas Mosse’s plates because it’s very much en vogue, but Kathleen Moran was doing that for 20 years,” he says.

Edward will often finish work at WIT, only to drive to a demo halfway across the country, not returning home until 4am. But with plans to open his own cookery school in Graiguenamanagh by the autumn, he is looking forward to the next challenge with his trademark enthusiasm.

“I wouldn’t have a background in building,” he laughs, “But I’m trying to go around like I’m Duncan Stewart.”

Duncan meets Daniel? Nah. It’s just Edward.

NEXT WEEK: Edward shares some of his favourite recipes when catering for a crowd.