Anna Haugh’s Big Irish Food Tour is coming to BBC Two
Date Posted: May 1, 2025
The celebrity chef returns home for a new series with special guests including Katherine Ryan, Laura Whitmore, Shayne Ward and Diarmuid Gavin.
Anna Haugh’s Big Irish Food Tour was commissioned for BBC Daytime and BBC Northern Ireland as part of the Hot House Initiative with support from Northern Ireland Screen.
In this 15-part series, starting on Monday 5 May on BBC Two, Anna Haugh travels around the island of Ireland, exploring all that is unique, and new, about Irish cuisine and culture.
From Ballycastle in County Antrim to Cork city, Anna is joined by celebrity guests including Katherine Ryan, Dennis Taylor, Ed Byrne, Shayne Ward, Laura Whitmore and Vanessa Feltz, who share their own Irish food memories and don their aprons to help her prepare a special meal.
On this culinary journey around the island Anna and her guest meet local food producers and sample an array of local ingredients and flavours.
Anna says: “Irish food is my passion and it’s a passion that took me from Dublin to London to pursue my dreams.
“Throughout this series, viewers can look forward to lots of delicious, inspiring food ingredients, wonderful recipes and great chats with my celebrity guests and food producers.”
In the first episode, Katherine Ryan joins Anna in the city of Cork – the ‘foodie capital of Ireland’ – where memories of her grandmother’s ‘over-boiled and under-seasoned’ dinners have left the comedian with a bad impression of Irish food.
In episode two snooker legend Dennis Taylor returns to the snooker hall in County Tyrone where it all began and after a spot of fishing, Anna and Dennis do some outdoor cooking with one of the area’s most unique delicacies – the Lough Neagh eel.
Later in the series, in her native Dublin, Anna meets actor Eilish O’Carroll from Mrs Brown’s Boys in an area of the city where traditional markets mix with global street food, and in County Antrim she visits a Ballycastle farm with garden designer Diarmuid Gavin.
The pair are put to work during potato planting season, and Anna later creates a goat hotpot for Diarmuid using these local spuds.
Far from the bright lights of London, Anna explores the rugged landscape of County Mayo with presenter Angela Scanlon and travels to Portrush on the north coast to meet actor Ian McElhinney.
In the seaside town, Ian reminisces about childhood holidays spent enjoying dulse, a local seaweed snack.
Other well-known faces joining Anna on her tour include, presenter Vanessa Feltz, Father Ted actor Pauline McLynn, wildlife broadcaster Liz Bonnin, rugby legend Bundee Aki and The Saturdays popstar Una Healy.
Anna’s journey comes to an end with singer and actor Shayne Ward in County Louth. Shayne is keen to connect with his Irish Traveller heritage and Anna introduces him to one of Ireland’s last surviving tinsmiths. They also visit a local farm where Shayne gets his hands dirty picking cabbage.
The series, made by Below The Radar TV, starts on Monday 5 May and airs weekdays at 6.30pm on BBC Two. The full series is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
