Caterer Orla McAndrew practices what she preaches in her own home and opens her cupboard doors to show her store cupboard staples.
Portrait pics by Emma Jervis
Caterer and zero waste practitioner Orla McAndrew of OM Catering and her partner and her three children, Nóra, age 12, Eva, age 10, and Ellie, age 6, share an old schoolmaster’s house in Donoughmore, between Mallow and Cork. Situated directly opposite the school, it dates from the 1880s.
She trained in a culinary arts degree in Tralee, now part of Munster Technical University, and went into commercial kitchens at the age of 28. She did not last and then became a stay-at-home mum.
“By the time I was thirty-nine and three-quarters, I was trying to figure out a way to use all the skills, food, and marketing,” she recalls.
A random encounter with a girl in the park proved to be a turning point. “We got talking and she said she couldn’t find a caterer for her wedding. I think I can do this for you. “
It was in six weeks and for 130 people. The ultimate pressure and ultimate rewards, she says, laughing.
“I had no experience. I had an enormous amount of waste and became very serious about food control."
By zero waste, she means she uses what’s in stock and on surplus. It means there’s a large degree of surprise on the menu.
“Everyone’s blind,” she says.
She now offers a zero-waste wedding menu to all her clients, saying ‘I do’.
Only 10 per cent of wedding customers choose this level option.
Many of these are second-time around and more relaxed. But 20 per cent of her corporate clients have trust in her abilities to magic something up.
Taking a vegetarian approach also keeps costs down. Thirty per cent of her business now requests a vegetarian menu, with 20 per cent of those making entirely vegan requests.
“A massive part of the ethos is not buying food flown in from all over the world and also supporting the local economy,” she explains.
In a home setting, it’s about not over-shopping in the first place, she says. “My fridge is never more than 40 per cent full. The key, then, is a good larder.”
Fitting, since she launched a cookbook called Larder, €17.00, earlier this year. So, what does she keep in her own store cupboard?
Generally, she only keeps one of everything.
“I’m not a doomsdayer. Dried goods go off. I have one or two of everything, where I can see them. It’s such a novelty. Previously, it was such a struggle to see what I had.”
This is because she installed a new kitchen about a year ago.
Before that, the space had been laid out “as a pokey little kitchen in an extension and a large dining room.”
Cullen View Interiors in Riverstick designed the new look. She flipped the spaces, putting the kitchen into the dining room.
“The kitchen was so small that if you stood too close to the oven, you’d burn yourself. I made use of all available walls to install floor-to-ceiling cabinetry. Now it’s a huge island that extends to almost four metres in length. “
The hob is on the island. If the girls are doing homework, I can look at them. Its doors are painted a navy charcoal the worktops are by Dekton.
The walls are painted in DH Blossom, a Victorian pink from the Dulux Heritage range.
Space is a huge thing, she says. “I wanted everything I needed in one room, not having to go out in the rain to get ferments and pickles.” Previously these were stored in the commercial kitchen, which is in another building out the back – not ideal on wet winter nights.
She now has two small larder cupboards, in one there’s a rack for spices, a rack for teas and coffees, and a rack for pastas and rice.
She uses Nespresso-compatible compostable coffee capsules, which she buys on Fzin.ie, 50, for 100 pods.
In the other is tins of tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, coconut milk, sardines, and anchovies.
“In my last kitchen, I didn’t know what I had as everything was in different cupboards,”
Her set-up is not typical. While she serves chicken goujons and sausage rolls, on those filthy winter nights she can also ‘shop’ her commercial kitchen freezers. She has two upright freezers and two chest freezers. All are A-rated.
She also has a generator, essential when food is your business. “This part area is often hit. There was one here when we bought it. We didn’t buy it. Three months later, the night after a big storm, he rang them up and they bought it.”
By the hob she keeps Achill Island sea salt, €5.05 for a 75 g jar of smoked salt or Dingle sea salt, €9.95 for 100 g in a ceramic jar.
I don’t peel vegetables. You’re throwing 10 per cent away and losing the fibre. She gives carrots, for example, a good wash, then adds a little bit of oil and sea salt, and cooks on a low heat for about 10 minutes, then adds butter, pops a lid on the saucepan, and walks away. “I shake the pot every so often. You can add rosemary, thyme, or cumin. It takes about 50 minutes."
Under the island, there is space for the dishwasher and bins. There’s a black bin and then recycling, broken down by two-thirds recycling and one-third compost. She washes any dirty packaging before recycling.
She’s been looking at the electrically operated composters that advertise on social media. On average, they appear to be about the size of a KitchenAid Professional and can turn up to three litres of plant waste into compost in a four-hour run cycle.
Which ingredients can she not do without? A can of chickpeas and Al Nakhil tahina.
Secret store cupboard ingredients include Palestinian olive oil she buys from Izz café, €22.50 for a litre.
The reno is ongoing. The downstairs toilet needs an update and new windows, and doors glazed by KW Building Providers.
To book Orla for a catering job or order her cookbook, visit omcatering.ie
