Celebrity chef Donal Skehan had to apologise to customers last week after many scented candles from his fledgling kitchen and lifestyle brand Wind Shore broke in transit.
Wind Shore launched recently, in time for Mother's Day, but the ceramic containers for many of the the €30 candles arrived at their destination broken, as did the replacements sent out to customers.
"I’m sitting here in my home office, AKA the emotional blast radius of a candle catastrophe," Skehan said on Instagram.
"We launched our very first candle just in time for Mother’s Day, so you could get your gifts ready – jasmine, amber, musk – the dream scent, basically a spring day on the Cliffs of Howth ...
"They broke in the post — a lot of them — and it was basically like I had boxed up a lovely intention and handed it to a courier named Chaos, who drop kicked them into oblivion."
The replacements, he added, "were sent out with love, prayers, and a little mild bit of PTSD," but then they broke too.
"At this stage, I was considering moving to a remote island with no postal service and starting a quiet life of lighthouse keeping."
Established by Skehan and wife Sofie Skehan Larsson in October, Wind Shore Goods also sells upmarket kitchen items such as extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, apple cider vinegar, coffee beans and cups.
Wind Shore says on its website that it is driven by "a passion for craft, working with makers and growers we know and trust to bring you the essence of coastal living—timeless, pure, and alive with the spirit of the shore."
Skehan himself was in pop groups Streetwize and Industry in the 2000s before starting his popular blog Good Mood Food and later turning it into an award-winning book, which caught the attention of television producer David Hare, who brought Rachael Allen and Neven Maguire to public attention.
Skehan's series Kitchen Hero debuted on RTÉ in 2011, and he has subsequently fronted a number of programmes including Donal's Family Kitchen and Donal's Festival Kitchen for the national broadcaster.
He has also appeared on Saturday Kitchen and Junior MasterChef for the BBC, and presented the food travel show Follow Donal for Food Network UK.
His YouTube channel has more than 1m subscribers, he has published 10 books, and he is also a brand partner for Dunnes Stores.
Until recently, Skehan and his family were based in Los Angeles for five years, and he served as a judge on the HBO Max reality competition show Baketopia.
The Skehans returned to Ireland and bought a seaside cottage in Sutton near Donal's native Howth for €905,000 in early 2023.
The Skehans own radio and television production company Homecooked Productions Ltd, which, as of August 2023, had net liabilities of €18,200 after making annual loses of €7,600 and €68,700 over the previous two years.
Homecooked holds a 22.5% stake in Mint Studios Ltd, which runs Skehan's recipe and meal-planning website Donal's Kitchen, alongside food-focused television and content creation company Nomos Productions (45%) and Amy O'Connor (32.5%), head of client services at Nomos and director of Donal's Kitchen.
The company was also in a net liability position at the end of 2023 (-€29,600) after losing €12,800 over the previous 12 months, a reversal from the €3,300 profit it booked in 2022.
Additionally, the Skehans own a combined 33% stake in television and video production company Appetite Media, alongside Nomos co-founders Marc Dillon (34%) and Robin Murray (33%).
Appetite Media produces Skehan's programmes for RTÉ as well as other lifestyle and cookery shows such as All Fired Up, The Shared Table, Jen's Weekends, Off Duty Chef, Battle of the Food Trucks, Cook-In with Mark Moriarty, Good Skin Day, Beyond the Menu, Natural Born Feeder, and most recently Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.
All four co-owners act as company directors, and Skehan, Dillon and Murray all hold the title of managing partner.
Skehan and Dillon also act as executive producers while Murray serves as creative director.
The latest accounts show Appetite Media made a €90,300 loss in 2023 after making a €35,400 profit the year prior, and the company has accumulated losses of €49,800. The directors received remuneration totalling €134,600.
All of the companies have fewer than 10 employees and are not required to publish revenue information under law.
Looking ahead, Skehan has recently launched the Let's Do This podcast with Dancing with the Stars judge Arthur Gourounlian.
Photo: Sofie Skehan Larsson and Donal Skehan. (Pic: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
