12 minute read
Celebrity Table
Action station: Tommy rustling up some Peruvian-inspired treats
READY, STEADY, BOWE!
From Irish international to Ireland AM, Tommy Bowe reflects on an incredibly multifaceted career over tacos and tostados at Zampas in Dublin... Interview: Lucy O’Toole
Zampas Bar & Restaurant Hard Rock Hotel, 16/18 Lord Edward St, Dublin 2 (01) 482 5017 zampas.ie
Considering he’s been up since before the crack of dawn, Tommy Bowe’s enthusiasm is remarkable. In fact, by just past midday, the former Irish and Ulster rugby star has managed to charm his way into the kitchen at Zampas – a Peruvian-inspired, bistro-style restaurant based inside Dublin’s Hard Rock Hotel, which, despite the challenges of lockdown, has become a local favourite since opening its doors on Lord Edward Street in 2020.
Donning an apron, Tommy is guided through a quick masterclass by the chefs in the open kitchen, as he learns how to put the final touches on his own Peruvian Spiced Pulled Pork Tacos. Clearly, the cookery slots on Ireland AM have rubbed off on the Monaghan man, who joined the popular Virgin Media Television show as a presenter over lockdown.
He’s joined me at the restaurant fresh from the TV studio in Ballymount, Co. Dublin – a serious commute from Belfast, where he’s based with his wife, former Miss Wales Lucy Whitehouse, and his two young children.
“We would move here, but the price of everything at the moment is insane,” he tells me back at our table, leaving the rest of the food preparation in the hands of the professionals.
“Since last year, house prices in Dublin are up 15%,” he resumes. “I feel there could be a crash coming, so I don’t want to buy now, and regret it. My dad always says, ‘When everyone’s spending, keep your hands in your pockets!’
“I was a rugby player who just started getting paid at the start of the last boom,” he adds. “Everyone was always telling us to get out there and invest in properties and all sorts. And then everything crashed. So I don’t want to make the same mistake again.”
Housing and inflation are some of the many subjects Tommy’s been tackling on Ireland AM. He sparked a notable reaction online earlier this year, following his fiery interview with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath.
“I was frustrated,” the former winger reflects. “We get messages from the public everyday, about what they’re going through. The cost of living and housing are massive ones. People
have told us that they’ve been working since they were 18, saved a pot of money – and they still can’t get anywhere near buying a house. We try to be a voice for those people.”
By his own admission, Tommy hardly read a newspaper until a few years ago. And while being “in hundreds of thousands of people’s homes every morning is amazing,” he admits that it “comes with a bit of pressure too.”
“I think people realise that I’m not trying to be an expert,” he points out. “I’m not trying to pretend I know everything. I’m just trying to be like the people at home, and sometimes ask the silly questions, which I seem to be quite good at!”
Self-deprecation aside, whatever he was up to in the kitchen has proved impressive as we’re served up a selection of starters, including his Peruvian Spiced Pulled Pork Tacos with pickled red onion, avocado, pineapple and chilli salsa. There’s also delicious Corn Tostados – slow roast tomato, feta, refried beans, pickled red onion and avocado mousse on crisp Blanco Niño tortillas – as well as a portion of Smoked Paprika, Garlic & Aji Panca Chilli Prawns, served alongside crisp radish, carrot, spring onion and grilled sourdough.
Food is another major passion of Tommy’s, citing his outdoor pizza oven as his lockdown lifesaver.
“It took an hour to get it going, so that meant an hour outside, away from the chaos of the kids!” he laughs. “And then it takes a good hour or so to cook something. So that was my area to go and get a bit of peace during the day.”
He’s happy to keep the culinary arts as a pastime for now – having already made a living in the worlds of rugby, clothing, shoes, and presenting, with previous slots on eir Sport and RTÉ’s travel show Getaways, before he landed his current Ireland AM gig.
Although he admits that he never envisioned a career in rugby when he was growing up, he tells me that the entire Bowe clan, who lived near the Northern Irish border in Emyvale, Co. Monaghan, were sports mad.
“Emyvale is the last stop before you go into the North, between Dublin and Derry,” he remarks. “I grew up going through the checkpoints. They were like huge army barracks you had to go through. You had the soldiers in the long grass with their machine guns, questioning where you were going, and why you were going there.
“But when you’re only ten years of age, you don’t know any different,” he adds. “I lived right on the border, but we’re not a very political family. I have loads of friends who are Catholic and Protestant. Sport is the great communicator – it brings communities together. I was involved in sport from a young age, so I never had an issue with religion from that side of things.”
Rugby, he said, “came out of nowhere” but shortly after being called up to the Ulster squad, Tommy earned his first cap for Ireland at the age of 20, becoming the first player from Co. Monaghan to do so since the ‘20s.
“At that stage, you’re thinking, ‘This is amazing, I don’t need to think about anything else,’” he reflects. “I was loving life. But then, when I got to about 30, one or two of my friends, like Stephen Ferris and Felix Jones, started picking up career-ending injuries. That’s when it really hit home for me: ‘Jesus, this could end very quickly.’”
With a degree in construction engineering already under his belt, he went on to do a postgraduate course in business management, and become much more hands-on in his shoes and clothes business. Retiring from sports, and the uncertainty facing athletes, is something he previously explored in the 2018 documentary The End Game.
“The money rugby players are earning now is good, but it’s never going to set them up for life,” he says. “If they’re lucky, they’ll make it to 31 or 32 years of age, and then they have to move on to something else. We’re not soccer players, where we can just go off and play golf for the rest of our lives. You have to try and invest in other businesses, or get involved in other stuff that you might be interested in. There’s a bit of pressure on guys with that.”
And despite the close bonds between teammates, when you retire, “you’re gone,” Tommy tells me.
“That’s one thing that really hits you, the minute you clear out your locker, and you walk out, and you’re deleted from all the team WhatsApp groups,” he reflects. “You try to catch up with the lads for a coffee, but you’re not really part of it anymore. It’s hard. They’re talking about what happened in training, and you’re very much on the outside. I’d be
Chef at work: a study in concentration; and (below) Tommy and Lucy (right) enjoy Zampa’s excellent service
a lot friendlier with the guys I played with who have retired as well. With the guys who are still playing, you’re kind of the old fossil now! It’s quite brutal, but it is what it is.”
He’s happy to see an increasing number of sports people speaking openly about these kinds of challenges, and their mental health struggles.
“When I was coming through the system, there was no such thing as mental health – you couldn’t miss out on games or training,” he reveals. “Even in the changing room, which was a very macho space, you wouldn’t ask each other how you were feeling. It was only towards the end of my career that that really started to change. If that stigma can be taken away, and if senior sportspeople can speak about it, it will help.”
Of course, replacing the adrenaline of a match is another issue facing retired sportspeople. While he admits that presenting on television “isn’t quite the same as running out at the Aviva, or scoring a try against England in the Six Nations,” he says it’s a “new type of pressure”.
“That’s where I get my kicks now – with live television, anything can go wrong!” he laughs. “Anything could come out of my mouth! You get an adrenaline kick from that. I love it.”
He’s also the first one to see the hilarity in
some of his on-air slip-ups – including the infamous ‘ten siblings’ moment, when Tommy interrupted co-host Clare McKenna as she was introducing their next guest.
“Author Séamus O’Reilly was just five years old when he and his ten siblings…” Clare began – before being cut across by Tommy excitedly exclaiming, “Ten siblings?!”
“... sadly lost their mum,” Clare resumed.
Unsurprisingly, a clip of the exchange rapidly went viral online.
“I’ve had so many would-be viral moments that haven’t actually gone viral, thankfully!” Tommy grins. “I dread to look at Twitter somedays, thinking, ‘Oh God, what have I said today?’ I’ve had a couple – no doubt there’ll be another one soon! Hopefully it won’t get me cancelled.
“The ‘ten siblings’ one probably went the furthest. When it gets clipped down, it looks like it may be offensive but Séamus is actually laughing. So it was a bit of a craic – and hopefully he sold a few books out of it! Win win!”
As we round off our lunch with two Americanos, Tommy notes that he’s happy to have found himself “turning into a rugby fan” post-retirement.
“I love it,” he smiles. “It’s great that I can be a fan, and just enjoy it. I’ve gone to a couple of matches and it’s nice – you don’t get battered and bruised, and you can have a pint, which is great!
“Irish rugby is in a good position right now. The provinces are going really well. Ireland was really strong in the Six Nations. What’s brilliant about it, is there’s definitely still a lot of room to improve, and I think the team know that. Going to New Zealand on tour in July will be a real tough challenge, but it will be a great opportunity for the new guys to get a chance, and put their hand up.”
As for himself, Tommy has clearly landed on his feet and despite his early starts, is more than content with his current position on Ireland AM.
“What I’m doing right now is class,” he says. “I’m so fortunate – I’m a bloody rugby player, who never read the paper! And now I’m doing this show. I’m so lucky, and I don’t forget that.”
•Watch Ireland AM on Virgin Media One at 7am on weekdays and 9am on weekends.
The Damage Peruvian Spiced Pulled Pork Tacos: €10.95 Corn Tostados: €9.50 Smoked Paprika, Garlic & Aji Panca Chilli Prawns: €11.25 Glass of Mavum Pinot Grigio: €8.75
UP AND YOTAM!
Stuart Clark Brings You The Latest Foodie News
HUNTING HIGH & WICKLOW
Superstar Israeli-born British chef Yotam Ottolenghi joins fellow kitchen wiz Rachel Allen and filmmaker Jon Ronson as one of the headline turns at The Great Gathering, the new “festival of delicious thinking”, which takes place from June 10-12 at Russborough House, Co. Wicklow.
The eight stages will also be graced by Jay Rayner, Blindboy Boatclub, Tom Parker Bowles, Emma Dabiri, Waterford Whispers News and other tasty types.
As well as running some of London’s coolest restaurants, Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem is singularly the best cookbook to have been published this millennium. thegreatgathering.ie.
BORN TO BE WILD
In one of the most eagerly anticipated openings of the year, Cavan-born TV chef Adrian Martin has found a permanent home for his Wildflower Restaurant at 52 South Richmond Street, Dublin 2.
With three separate eating and imbibing spaces and antique French armchairs to sink into, it’s a very different experience to the shipping container pop-up Wildflower, which had London foodies flocking to Camden Market a few years back.
Sustainability, foraging, fermentation and quality local produce are all to the fore on a menu that includes such delights as Hand Dived Scallop Ceviche with Meadow Sweet & Oscietra Caviar; Glazed Thornhill Duck with Foie Gras, Onion Miso, Vetch & Sauce Grand Veneur; and Valrhona White Chocolate Cremeux Tart with Wild Strawberries, Fig Leaf & Marigold. wildflowerrestaurant.ie.
THAT’S THE SPIRIT!
If you’re down West Cork way, Clonakilty Distillery offers both guided tours and the chance to spend two hours in their Minke Gin School learning about botanicals and creating your own customised bottle of Mother’s Ruin, which you’ll be able to take home with you. clonakiltydistillery.ie.
From nearby Skibbereen comes Graham Norton’s West Cork Marmalade Gin.
“You’ve tried it on toast, now try it as a toast,” quips the five-time BAFTA award-winner who prides himself on doing as much quality controlling of the product as he can. The third gin to bear his name, its Seville orange zing definitely tastes of more. HOPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
The Fidelity Beer Festival returns to the Dublin Mansion House on July 15 and 16. The second night is sold-out, but €62.50 will gain you admission to the Friday 6pm-11pm session, which includes as many IPAs, DIPAs, pilsners, porters, browns, reds, stouts, sours and, well, whatever you’re having yourself, as you can responsibly imbibe. fidelity. beer.
You can also catch the train to Sligo for August 6’s Hagstravaganza, the White Hag Brewery’s annual gathering of the beery clans. Check thewhitehag.com for the imminent line-up announcement.
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Wildflower Restaurant, Jerusalem cookbook, Yotam Ottolenghi, Clonakilty Distillery and Graham Norton’s West Cork Marmalade Gin
