An all-out winner

Limerick man Pádraig McCarthy always knew cooking was what he wanted to do, but battling cancer and kidney failure led to him having to take a step back from his career. That is until he entered and won RTÉ’s Taste of Success programme last year, securing the €100,000 prize for his beef short ribs with pancetta and cider Sauce.

Then in January of this year he got another reason to celebrate – the call came that he was to finally get a life-changing kidney transplant.

“The feeling of freshness the morning I woke up after the operation is indescribable, it was like going from night to day. I’m ready for any opportunity that comes my way now, and all I want to do is get back to cooking,” he says.

Challenging times

At 18 Pádraig was diagnosed with a kidney disease called IgA nephropathy.

“The immune system attacks the kidneys and it’s a progressive, chronic disease that wears the kidneys down over time,” Pádraig explains.

About seven years later, Pádraig found out he had testicular cancer – an unrelated condition that struck out of the blue.

“I found a lump and thought, like most men, it’ll be fine, it’ll go away. But then I actually did some Googling, which was probably the best thing I could have done, and it scared me into going to my GP a few days later,” Pádraig says.

The cancer was stage one and Pádraig counts himself lucky that he only required surgery. Two years after that, however, the IgA nephropathy worsened and he went into kidney failure at 27 and needed dialysis.

“I had haemodialysis in hospital, three times a week for six months, then after that I did peritoneal dialysis (PD) myself at home, four times a day everyday. Either way you are very restricted,” Pádraig explains.

Tasting success

He was still carrying out the (PD) when he competed in Taste of Success last year, which proved challenging – having to perform the dialysis between takes at locations around the country rather than in his own home.

Despite the challenge, Pádraig jumped at the opportunity to get back to cooking, after having to give up a head chef position in Galway when his condition worsened as the physical demands of the role became too much. It was his mother that gave him the idea to enter.

“She rang me and said: ‘I know how you can make €100,000.’ I didn’t even know what it was and I instantly said sign me up. But once I learned about the food product development side, straight away I was hooked.”

He decided on his product, beef short ribs with pancetta and cider sauce, as he discovered the beef short rib cut was very popular in America, but, until recently, it was just used by butchers to add to mince in Ireland.

“I developed the product in the knowledge that our beef is so renowned and well received around the world and less expensive cuts of beef are trendy now.”

The prize of €100,000 was broken up into three parts, with €50,000 cash, €25,000 contributed by Lidl towards marketing and promotion of the product, and 3% royalties on sales.

“I would tell any producer or cookery fan to enter, to know that your product is in Lidl stores nationwide – you can’t buy that exposure and support,” Pádraig says.

And the proud chef is quick to share that the product has already exceeded expectations.

Enter Taste of Success 2015

Turn your food passion into €100,000. Whatever your food product is, whether it’s your granny’s delicious bread recipe or a new dessert of your own concoction, visit http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/thetasteofsuccess.html to download the application form for this year’s show. The closing date is 7 May at 5pm