Clodagh McKenna, the resident chef on ITV’s This Morning, has gained a loyal following for her engaging and upbeat presentation style, and her simple and delicious recipes.
And she is firmly of the belief that food has the power to transform our quality of life by enhancing both body and mind, and dramatically lifting our mood. If ever there was a living embodiment of positivity, it would surely be McKenna.
But the cookbook author, TV presenter, farmer and lifestyle influencer explains that she hasn’t always been the joyful person she is today. In fact, only a decade ago, she was desperately unhappy and felt that she had completely lost her way.
“I was living in Ireland and from the outside I might have looked successful,” she says. “I was so busy running restaurants, I was working all the time and I never even stopped to breathe. I was in a relationship with a lovely man, but he wasn’t right for me. I’d wake up feeling heavy and sluggish, and would fight through each day.
“Then my dad died and that made me re-evaluate everything. He’d been so worried about how I’d been working that it gave me the spur to change things, and to move to England. I think it was his spirit that gave me the strength to leave.”
Going from a country where she was a household name with a thriving business and a secure income, to starting from scratch, alone, might sound foolhardy, but McKenna says she used it as the opportunity to completely reboot her life. She entirely overhauled how she nourished her body – from the food she ate to her exercise and meditation routines.
“Once you look after what you put into your body, that really helps your mind,” she says.
“I knew a lot about nutrition already, having worked in food for so long, but I taught myself a lot more and found that I could change my mood in only a few hours through what I ate.”
In her new cookbook, Clodagh’s Happy Cooking – which she’s dedicated the past two years to writing – she shares 100 easy recipes geared to boosting health and mood.
Not that there’s any sense of deprivation here – these are recipes that are flavour-packed and satisfying, including her Irish Stew with Pearl Barley, Guinness Brown Bread, and the super-easy Frittart. And she also urges everyone to try making her Daily Happy Juice as “it’s packed with goodness” and is “an easy act of self-love to start every day”.
In the book, McKenna also reveals the five other activities that are now key to her happiness: meditation; forest bathing; cold showers; walking; and dancing to her favourite music.
“If things are stressful, I will literally just put a headset on and dance, and will instantly feel better,” she explains.
“I grew up doing that, because my mother would make us dance as kids. I now realise that what she was doing was calming us down because we’d lose ourselves in the music and movement.”
With several other cookbooks to her name, why is now the right moment for McKenna to publish one on food that lifts mood? “I think I hit 50 and, after listening to feedback from the audience who follow me on This Morning, I wanted to do a book that would really help others,” she says.
“These recipes aren’t complicated and don't require millions of ingredients that are difficult to get. You also don't need to be brilliantly skilled. But by focusing on the right foods, you can look after yourself better and totally change how you feel.”
McKenna confides that, since she started looking after her own body and mind, everything in her life has fallen into place. She met Harry Herbert – son of the 7th Earl of Carnarvon, and the founder and chairman of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing – whom she married in 2021, becoming stepmother to his three grown-up children. The couple started the sustainable farm Broadspear in the grounds of Highclere Park, where they live.
“The difference between the old me and who I am now is that I put myself first all the time,” she says. “And that’s not selfish because when I look after myself, everything is better for everyone – my husband is happier, my stepchildren are happier, the people who work with me are happier. I promise that everybody is happier around you when you make yourself a priority.”
Not that life isn’t incredibly busy, with McKenna getting up at 5.30am every day to pack everything in. “Living at Broadspear and having the farm is hugely hard work,” she says. “The most important thing is the welfare of our animals, and it’s constant, so first thing in the morning and last thing at night, there’s always something to do.”
Currently, the couple have three Aberdeen Angus cows that they rear for beef, as well as three woodland pigs, so they can make their own sausages, bacon and ham. “We don’t sell any of it, but there’s usually enough to feed our friends as well as ourselves,” she explains. There are 22 chickens and nine ducks ensuring a plentiful supply of eggs – “Heaven is a fried duck egg on a bit of sourdough” – not to mention 60 bee hives.
“I use honey so much in my cooking. Harry loves it, and our friends and family love it as well – it’s incredible how much we get through,” says McKenna. “I have visions of selling it, but we never seem to have much left over.”
Little wonder that the name she came up with for her new homeware business (launched last May) is Honey by Clodagh. She’s as passionate about the products she’s creating as she is about the produce from the hives. “I started with a linen range as I love tablescaping, and have also made a casserole pot and home fragrance,” she says.
“These aren’t things that I buy from a wholesaler – they’re products I’ve designed and are made exactly as I want them to be. I can’t tell you how exciting that is. When my diffuser bottles arrived, I was delirious! I have them around my house, and keep looking at them in disbelief – it’s my logo on them and my own unique smell that I developed."
Clearly not one to stand still, McKenna says she’d love to grow Honey by Clodagh further as a lifestyle brand, while introducing a small dairy herd to the farm: “Having our own milking cows and being able to make my own butter – that would be the dream.”
And it’s thanks to her mother that she chases such dreams. “My mum used to always say to me, my sisters and brother: ‘Let your dreams begin when you wake up in the morning,'” she explains. “She meant that if we had a dream, it was up to us make it happen. If life isn’t a rehearsal, then the time to start doing that is now!”
[Hero image credit: David Loftus]
Clodagh’s Happy Cooking RRP: £25 (Kyle Books)
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