“I’ve persuaded Danny to come on, he wants to come on and talk about his granny’s coddle”
Celebrity chef Kevin Dundon has persuaded Mrs Brown’s Boys star Danny O’Carroll to be the first of his fellow Dancing With The Stars contestants to take part in his culinary podcast series.
Kevin (58) co-hosts the Sunday World’s Under The Grill podcast with our Magazine+ editor Caoimhe Young and admits he’s thrilled he has got telly favourite Danny, who plays Buster Brady in the hit comedy show, to participate.
“The Under The Grill podcast is an amazing podcast, it’s all about food nostalgia,” he says.
“I’ve persuaded Danny to come on, he wants to come on and talk about his granny’s coddle.
“So, we’ll cook that up and we’ll chat about that for a while. Listen, they all want to come on, it’s a great podcast and I love doing it.”
But Kevin has not cooked yet for his fellow contestants.
“I don’t have the space because there’s too many of us,” he smiles. “I would love to cook for them, so they’d have to come down to Dunbrody [Kevin’s hotel and restaurant in Co Wexford].
Our place in Dun Laoghaire probably isn’t big enough. I will do something, I haven’t got around to it. I’m still trying to work out my routines — I’ve got my own problems!”
Kevin raves about the food he’s being served in the canteen at the studio while rehearsing.
“It’s actually very, very good, really good,” he exclaims. “They give a really good, solid three choice main course. They have amazing salads as well.
“On Sunday they do a lovely roast pork. I don’t get pork much at home because Catherine [his wife] doesn’t really like pork, so when I see pork on the menu I tend to go for it. Last week it was roasted carrots and parsnips and green beans and roast potatoes.
“I had a lovely dahl vegetarian curry there one day as well. They look after you really well. I was talking to Larry Bass from ShinAwiL and he was saying it’s worth paying the extra couple of euro to get really good food, because they are long days.
“We come in at eight o’clock in the morning on a Sunday and you don’t leave there until 9.30 at night. So it’s important that you’re being fed well and you’re happy to go for lunch. There’s a very positive vibe around lunch with the whole crew, because we’re all chatting, the judges and everything, everybody is all there.”
Kevin will tonight be taking part in a special Eurovision themed night and dance a waltz to the ballad Amar Pelos Dois, which won for Portugal in 2017.
Last week he referred to tragedies as he dedicated his dance to his wife Catherine. “You’re all aware we had a couple of nieces and nephew that were killed in a car crash,” he explains.
“Every family goes through tragedies, but it’s important that when you’re put in a situation where you have tragedies in your family that you need to be there for each other and support each other through difficult times, as well as good times.”
Catherine’s nieces Soren (11) and Saoirse (9) and nephew Conor (3) tragically lost their lives in a car crash in Denmark in 2013.
They were visiting their Danish grandfather with their dad Brian — brother of Kevin’s wife Catherine — and their mother Maria, and baby brother.
Their mother, a doctor, was rushed to hospital following the accident, along with the youngest child. Brian was not in the car at the time.
Kevin himself has three children — Emily (24), Sophie (21) and Tom (17).
Kilkenny College student Tom blushed when his mum playfully tossed his hair on camera in the audience at the show last week.
“Obviously the camera was on him quite a bit,” Kevin laughs.
“He told me yesterday he got 16 new friend requests from 16 girls out there, looking for love. He is pretty happy. He deserves that because he’s getting some slagging in school about his dad doing Dancing With the Stars.
“The two girls, Emily and Sophie, are in Berlin, and they have a Dancing With The Stars party every Sunday, so they are cheering us on from Berlin, and there’s about 20 of them in their apartment. They’re really proud.
“Emily is working in Berlin. She is working for a company called Atmosphere, which is a carbon neutral company.
“Sophie is in the London School of Economics doing Political Science and International Development.”
Kevin says he has noticed a huge improvement in his health.
“I tried on a suit for next week and I’m down two sizes since I started,” he proclaims. “That’s pretty good. If you’re moving for six hours a day seven days a week, you’re going to lose weight.
“What’s interesting the weighing scales doesn’t tell you, is that you’re becoming more toned, so you’re building muscle.”
Dancing With The Stars is on RTÉ One tonight at 6.30pm.
