1987 Beardy Chef: The Mood Is Food

BuilderPlumber · 09-06-2015 12:53pm #1

I can vaguely remember this TV show in 1987 or thereabouts. It was called the Mood is Food, was Irish and was presented by a beardy chef? But there are absolutely no details on it anywhere. And who was this chef?

darkdubh · 09-06-2015 1:44pm

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I can vaguely remember this TV show in 1987 or thereabouts. It was called the Mood is Food, was Irish and was presented by a beardy chef? But there are absolutely no details on it anywhere. And who was this chef?

I think I remember him?Did he have a weird kind of Abraham Lincoln type beard with no moustache and had a slightly "zany" image?

BuilderPlumber · 09-06-2015 2:41pm

darkdubh wrote: »

I think I remember him?Did he have a weird kind of Abraham Lincoln type beard with no moustache and had a slightly "zany" image?

That would be the description I have in my head of him too. Around 1986-1989 period I would say. Do not know how long he was on but I have a feeling 1986-87 for certain. I think he had a cookbook out too? also called The Mood Is Food.

BuilderPlumber · 09-06-2015 9:50pm

Looked up this again and it seems like it never even existed? But I remember it being a themed series based on a national cuisine (Indian, Chinese, Italian, etc.) each week and it may have been a once off tie in to a book also called The Mood Is Food that I remember in the Tesco shops when they were called Quinnsworth.

Skid X · 09-06-2015 10:12pm

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

Looked up this again and it seems like it never even existed? But I remember it being a themed series based on a national cuisine (Indian, Chinese, Italian, etc.) each week and it may have been a once off tie in to a book also called The Mood Is Food that I remember in the Tesco shops when they were called Quinnsworth.

I did a bit of googling, it definitely existed according to the TV Schedules (in the Dungarvan Leader, on page four). I don't know any more about it

http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/enewspapers/dungarvan_leader/1987/Dungarvan_Leader_02_Feb_06.pdf

Tuesday February 10th 1987 RTE1

6pm The Angelus
6.01 Newstime
6.30 Rapid Roulette
7.00 Evening Extra
7.30 Face of The Earth
8.00 Downtown
9.00 News
9.25 Fianna Fail Party Political Broadcast
9.30 Today Tonight
10.15 Dallas
11.10 The Mood is Food
11.40 Late News

BuilderPlumber · 09-06-2015 10:18pm

Skid X wrote: »

I did a bit of googling, it definitely existed according to the TV Schedules (in the Dungarvan Leader, on page four). I don't know any more about it

http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/enewspapers/dungarvan_leader/1987/Dungarvan_Leader_02_Feb_06.pdf

Tuesday February 10th 1987 RTE1

6pm The Angelus
6.01 Newstime
6.30 Rapid Roulette
7.00 Evening Extra
7.30 Face of The Earth
8.00 Downtown
9.00 News
9.25 Fianna Fail Party Political Broadcast
9.30 Today Tonight
10.15 Dallas
11.10 The Mood is Food
11.40 Late News

Thanks .. just looked this up too. I remember that Downtown being a cop series, Today Tonight basically Primetime and Dallas, so probably got a look at it after this. What a LATE time to have a cookery show on at!!!!

FloatingVoter · 09-06-2015 10:58pm

Dallas normally aired on a Saturday night. So that was probably a repeat on the Tuesday. I'd guess the same for the cookery show.
Today Tonight (Brian Farrell, John Bowman, Pat Kenny, Olivia O' Leary et al) was always midweek.

darkdubh · 09-06-2015 11:38pm

If its the same fella I think it is I remember reading an article somewhere about ten years ago which was a sort of "where are they now? " type thing and it said that he'd become bankrupt at point in the late 80s /early 90s and I think maybe moved abroad.I just can't remember his name.

BuilderPlumber · 09-06-2015 11:49pm

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Dallas normally aired on a Saturday night. So that was probably a repeat on the Tuesday. I'd guess the same for the cookery show.
Today Tonight (Brian Farrell, John Bowman, Pat Kenny, Olivia O' Leary et al) was always midweek.

I do normally remember Dallas being on Saturdays but remember watching it on Tuesdays too. IIRC, I think it changed to Tuesday for one year? The cookshow was probably a repeat from the week before?

BuilderPlumber · 09-06-2015 11:53pm

darkdubh wrote: »

If its the same fella I think it is I remember reading an article somewhere about ten years ago which was a sort of "where are they now? " type thing and it said that he'd become bankrupt at point in the late 80s /early 90s and I think maybe moved abroad.I just can't remember his name.

Yes ... as far as I recall, I only saw him in this and writing the book of the same name. It was probably all Darina Allen after that (I'd imagine her first TV shows were shortly after this period?) and then Richard Corrigan, Neven Maguire, Dylan McGrath, Kevins Dundon and Thornton, Donal Skehan, etc. came along not to mention Rachel Allen. Surprising though the Mood Is Food guy did not make a comeback in recent times as there's more of a demand for it now?

FloatingVoter · 10-06-2015 12:30am

Searching for bankrupt chefs just makes a murky issue funnier. Only chef I remember from the 80s is Keith Floyd and he always shaved before he got drunk cooked.

geosynchronous orbit · 10-06-2015 12:11pm

Don't remember this at all but using my google foo;
is this the guy? Sean Kinsella

https://www.google.ie/search?q=sean+kinsella+chef&biw=1384&bih=773&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI6feM7YuFxgIViiasCh3ijQAv#imgrc=Bb3L3XrQIsSXdM%253A%3BqduVDeB3veVgRM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fstillslibrary.rte.ie%252Findexplus%252Fdb_images%252F21%252F2118%252Fbroadcast-visible-watermark%252F025_58682cc6d8edb27a5c4dac59164979eca1890309.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fstillslibrary.rte.ie%252Findexplus%252Fimage%252F2118%252F025.html%3B768%3B512

BuilderPlumber · 10-06-2015 3:06pm

geosynchronous orbit wrote: »

Don't remember this at all but using my google foo;
is this the guy? Sean Kinsella

This may well be him? Pictures I saw of him have a beard that is grey but he was black or brown bearded back in the 1980s. Kinsella died in 2013 at 81 so the age would be about right. I recall the Mood Is Food guy was around 50 or so.

But still there is no mention of The Mood is Food? Kinsella has another show mentioned he did and he was friendly with Haughey.

Mesrine65 · 10-06-2015 5:09pm

Sean Kinsella was the first Irish celebrity chef & owner of the Mirabeau restauraunt.

darkdubh · 10-06-2015 7:46pm

geosynchronous orbit wrote: »

Don't remember this at all but using my google foo;
is this the guy? Sean Kinsella

https://www.google.ie/search?q=sean+kinsella+chef&biw=1384&bih=773&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI6feM7YuFxgIViiasCh3ijQAv#imgrc=Bb3L3XrQIsSXdM%253A%3BqduVDeB3veVgRM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fstillslibrary.rte.ie%252Findexplus%252Fdb_images%252F21%252F2118%252Fbroadcast-visible-watermark%252F025_58682cc6d8edb27a5c4dac59164979eca1890309.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fstillslibrary.rte.ie%252Findexplus%252Fimage%252F2118%252F025.html%3B768%3B512

Thats definitely the guy I remember.

BuilderPlumber · 10-06-2015 8:03pm

darkdubh wrote: »

Thats definitely the guy I remember.

It is most likely this guy .. he was very prominent at the time. Only now we need to try and connect him to the mystery The Mood Is Food show. How can a show that featured fairly recently on TV just vanish like this?? The fact that it also spawned a book should mean that there should be some record of it somewhere!!

BuilderPlumber · 10-06-2015 8:17pm

https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=CZl4VcXZIKWr7AaLiYDoCQ#q=%22John+Fitzmaurice+Mills%22+AND+%22Home+in+the+green+land%22

Just looked up another obscure 1980s series called A Home In The Greenland about Irish castles ... in this case, I had the name of the programme and its producer. BUT again just ONE page mentions it!! I would not have thought that this or The Mood Is Food would be that obscure!!

BuilderPlumber · 11-06-2015 2:42pm

I have asked around everywhere about this show and no one seems to remember. People who were a lot older than me in the 1987 period who should have but no one seems to have heard of The Mood Is Food.

But it was high profile in its time and clearly had the status of Darina/Rachel Allen, Donal Skehan, Richard Corrigan or Neven Maguire at the time. But Ireland was not as food-sensitive then as now and there was no Internet then either. But it is not just the chefs: I did check out that A Home in the Green Land thing and found the same. Are ALL these 1980s home produced shows I half remember (Places and Faces? is another I think I vaguely recall) so forgotten that it is like they never even happened??

BuilderPlumber · 11-06-2015 2:46pm

Yes, there is something for that other programme - It is Faces and Places. Perhaps, it is much more documented on the Internet because Gaybo's wife was the presenter:

http://www.rte.ie/tv50/essays/kathleenwatkins.html

geosynchronous orbit · 11-06-2015 2:54pm

In fairness, Faces and Places lasted 6 years and was a summer filler program.

Maybe contact RTE Archive department (I am sure one must exist) and see if they have any info.

Late 80;s Ireland, I am sure you will remember, was a little too early for internet and a little too long ago to have decent public archives on throw away shows.

BuilderPlumber · 11-06-2015 3:21pm

geosynchronous orbit wrote: »

In fairness, Faces and Places lasted 6 years and was a summer filler program.

Maybe contact RTE Archive department (I am sure one must exist) and see if they have any info.

Late 80;s Ireland, I am sure you will remember, was a little too early for internet and a little too long ago to have decent public archives on throw away shows.

Thanks. That is it. I will contact RTE archive department. Faces and Places was a much higher profile show that lasted longer with the host being Kathleen Byrne at the height of Gay's Late Late Show era and very broad and tourism orientated. I am unsure about other programmes. But with The Mood Is Food, I think it was only a once off and themed around different national cuisines but it was high profile enough and had an accompanying book.

geosynchronous orbit · 11-06-2015 3:27pm

Ok, you have me hooked now

What;s the interest?

Please post if you get any feedback

FloatingVoter · 11-06-2015 3:51pm

Kathleen Watkins btw. She kept the maiden name due to her being a renowned harpist and whatshisname some guttersnipe that was beneath herself - ask her, she'll agree. So will Gaybo.

BuilderPlumber · 11-06-2015 8:12pm

geosynchronous orbit wrote: »

Ok, you have me hooked now

What;s the interest?

Please post if you get any feedback

I will post any feedback that I will get. No interest in particular only this programme came into my head. I thought it would be just go look it up and something would be there. Someone has to have an old early 1987 RTE Guide issue?

BuilderPlumber · 11-06-2015 11:18pm

geosynchronous orbit wrote: »

In fairness, Faces and Places lasted 6 years and was a summer filler program.

Maybe contact RTE Archive department (I am sure one must exist) and see if they have any info.

Late 80;s Ireland, I am sure you will remember, was a little too early for internet and a little too long ago to have decent public archives on throw away shows.

The attitude to TV series was very different back then. It was often like: once they were done, that was it. Record over and forget it. Of course, it was not like that in the US: the content was kept to be shown again and again. But not put out on video. In fact, one had to wait a full 2 years then to buy a video of a cinema film. And all classic 1980s US shows are now on DVD.

Now, you can buy a DVD of just about any series bar the longrunning soaps. So, it is harder now to forget any show. There were probably many top shows in the 1970s and 1980s that fell through the cracks: popular for a while and then forgotten.

I asked around a little more. The Mood Is Food rings bells for some I discussed it with and many do indeed think it is yer man Sean Kinsella did it (but couldn't be 100% sure). I think Darina Allen started her Simply Delicious in 1989 and this took Irish cookery shows to a new high building on the foundation of shows like The Mood Is Food (which was unlucky to have been made at the time it was made). If it was Kinsella doing TMIF, I can also see why he was not taking advantage of the newfound interests in cookery shows and why he became poor: he was too middle aged and masculine for a new agecentric and feminine type of cookery show. Darina then was youthful and innovative. Rachel and Donal took over then as the youthful side of cookery. And even when age was not an issue anymore, others had taken Kinsella's? place: Kevin Dundon, Richard Corrigan, Paul Flynn and Neven Maguire had come in.

Speaking of Paul Flynn: I had to laugh when I heard the name of the new cookery show: Wait for it ...

LORDS AND LADLES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

BuilderPlumber · 15-06-2015 11:35pm

I had a few more discussions on this programme over the weekend. Many remember it as one of the biggest cookery shows of the late 1980s pre-Darina Allen era. They remember the book too and bought the book. They will do a search for the book and I hope to see it soon. But yet no one knows who the chef was. Or anything about the programme.

This is another chef (unnamed) from the time and may be the Mood is Food guy?

https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/2259/082.html

Will be emailing RTE Archives about The Mood is Food later in the week.

But there should be more info available about shows like this and others I mentioned that seem to have just been totally forgotten. Surely, there are old RTE Guides and other newspaper clippings that tell us more about it.

Just looked up another show I vaguely remember and at least got something. The show is Encore, again from around the same time:

https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/2164/020.html

Bryan Murray, aka Bob from Fair City, was the presenter. I recall it may have been like The Imelda May Show sort of thing?

Alloverthecamp · 10-10-2015 9:31am

I believe the Mood Is Food guy was an Englishman called Jeffrey Hyman. I think he had some deal with Sharwoods and used a lot of their products. Smug git.

BuilderPlumber · 10-10-2015 5:19pm

Alloverthecamp wrote: »

I believe the Mood Is Food guy was an Englishman called Jeffrey Hyman. I think he had some deal with Sharwoods and used a lot of their products. Smug git.

I remember now. I wonder was the programme a UK or an Irish production? It was definitely shown on Irish TV. All the Sharwoods products I remember too. I think the set of recipes were themed around Chinese, Indian, Italian and maybe other? recipes.

1987 Beardy Chef: The Mood Is Food

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