Mark Moriarty: Cook Like a Chef

A dedicated holiday edition where Mark applies modern chef methods to classic Christmas proteins, sides, and dynamic ways to repurpose festive leftovers.

Mark redesigns popular takeaway orders into healthier, faster, and more affordable home variants. The centerpiece recipe is a scratch-made Chicken Tikka Masala.

Mark brings high-heat restaurant methods home, focusing on grilling and charring. Features a barbecued striploin steak with a homemade classic Caesar salad and a roasted baba ghanoush alongside grilled focaccia.

Shifting vegetables into the hero role, Mark highlights seasonal greens and roots. Recipes feature a deep Vietnamese-style mushroom pho and roasted carrot flatbreads.

Mark focuses on large, comforting, and shareable family platters designed to feed groups efficiently while implementing high-end seasoning elements.

Inspired by his culinary training in Italy, Mark serves up regional Italian favorites. Features a slow-roast pork belly paired with crispy roasted potatoes, alongside a traditional hearty leftover-based Ribollita soup.

Mark demystifies cooking seafood on busy nights, breaking down techniques for perfect searing, proper seasoning, and picking out fresh, sustainable everyday catch.

This week on Cook Like a Chef, Mark Moriarty is all about making weeknight cooking easy, exciting, and full of flavour.

Mark preps three salmon meals under 30 minutes: a gentle Salmon en papillote with braised fennel, a roasted salmon with spicy pil-pil prawns, and a herb-crusted salmon with egg-potato salad.

Mark visits grass-fed lamb farms. He makes slow-cooked lamb shank Birria tacos, a comforting pecorino-mash Shepherd's pie, and quick chargrilled lamb chops with a mint-yogurt dressing.

Celebrating prime local beef cuts, Mark walks through how to perfectly brown minced meat to optimize depth, cook steaks to target temperatures, and make quick pan sauces.

Focusing on forest and cultivated mushrooms, Mark breaks down how to cook fungi without turning them soggy. Features a highly technical, glossy wild mushroom saffron risotto.

Mark meets local tomato growers nurturing peak-summer crops. He showcases a roasted cod with a warm, tomato-rich bois boudran sauce and utilizes leftover pork belly into a secondary pasta meal.

Mark visits local potato growers at Ballymakenny Farm. Back in the kitchen, he covers essential restaurant variations: loaded beef-chilli fries, crispy beef-dripping roasties, Pomme Anna, and potato fondants.

Mark highlights chicken by mapping out three distinct preparations. The featured restaurant classic is a deep, rich Chicken Chasseur.