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Masterchef!

Smash Hits Magazine, May 17th 2000 >>

subscribe to Smash Hits With Westlife's very own whiz in the kitchen

- Kian Egan You've got someone coming round for a hot dinner date. What would you cook them? I'd make spaghetti bolognaise. I don't cook it the normal way, but if people tried mine, they'd all make it that way. (Bacon is Kian's 'secret' ingredient - Cookery Ed)

Do you eat straight away, or is there time for a chat? I'd make sure I had dinner ready for when she arrives. And I'd still have th apron on - a polka dotted one - when she comes in, so she'd know I'd been slaving in the kitchen!

What would you drink? I'd have her red wine and white wine ready, it would be her choice. Anything else? I'd have garlic bread, too.

Erm, is that wise? Well I always have chewing gum handy in case there's a breath problem, but I wouldn't keep it on the table. That wouldn't be subtle!

Have you had any cooking disasters? (Smiles) It's always gone smoothly, I've always been a good cook.

Always? I always used to cook my own tea, like spaghetti or chicken sandwiches, so I kinda learnt to cook from my mum. And I cooked for the whole family as well, so I was good at home economics at school!

When was the first time you cooked for a girl? It was spaghetti bolognaise when I was 16. My girlfriend and I came home from school and I cooked for her. It was beautiful.

Do you cook while you're going round the world? We don't really get a chance. Even when I come home, I don't bother cooking for myself any more. Mum has the food in fron of me before I've got through the door! It's one of the things you miss most being abroad - your mum's cooking.

What are the other 'Lifers like at cooking? Bryan does nothing for himself. He can't even heat up beans without burning them. Shane's all right at bacon and chips and stuff like that. He can cook a bit.

Did you ever go to the cafe his parents run in Sligo? We used to go there all the time when we were starting up the band, for a fry-up before rehearsals. My sister used to work there years ago, believe it or not.

Would you ever like to open your own restaurant? Maybe not a restaurant, but I'd like to open a club or really good pub in Sligo. You could open up a chain... Yeah, I'd have one in LA, Miami, wherever it's hot...(chuckles)

Where in the world do you like to eat? Italy has the most beautiful food. The Italians know how to cook and all they ever do is eat! As soon as you arrive at the aiport, they're saying "When are we going for diiner?" whatever time of day it is. All the stuff they do there, the pasta, the sauces (licking his lips), is brilliant. They're very serious about their food - Bryan bought some pasta over there and put it in a sandwich and (shaking his head) the Italians were disgusted with him. America's good too, I had an amazing T-bone steak in New York recently.

Where don't you like to eaet? I don't like Japanese, Chinese or Indian. I don't like spicy foods. I'm a man of simple tastes. The last time we ate in a Japanese restaurant, I ordered a steak!

Do you like McDonald's? Everybody in the band kind of stays away from that. We only eat it if there's no other option.

But would you ever go veggie? No way!

What if Cameron Diaz said she'd marry you only if you went veggie? If Cameron Diaz loved me enough (laughing) she'd have to respect what I eat. So not even for Cameron Diaz. I like my steaks too much!

Kian's Kaff MENU

****** Starters Special K Flying Without Buffalo Wings ******

Main courses Steak ("Rare it again, please") Egan chips ******

Dessert Raspberry fool (again) ******

All served on our roof terrace with Seasonings, in the sun

article © Smash Hits

Kian's Diary

RTE Guide June 25th 2001

HI THERE! Guess what....it's Thursday evening, we're on a coach taking us from Naples to another town about an hour away where we'll be doing a show on Saturday, the weather's good, the world tour has ended and we actually have a day off tomorrow! On top of that, we're looking forward to getting home on Sunday and having a few days off before we head to Sweden to record the next album. It will be great to get some real sleep for a change!

FALLING INTO BED Last time I wrote was from Barcelona, where we'd just arrived after being up and travelling for 32 hours. I just fell into bed that night. Next day we had the afternoon off so we went shopping. Nothing special, just a look around some of the streets and the shops. Barcelona is fine, but it's very hard to find a taxi! So we did a fair bit of walking and there are some amazing sights and buildings in the old part of town.

That night we played to an audience that was much smaller than any we'd seen on the tour. Well, there were about 3,000 which is good, because we've hardly spent any time in Spain, but it seemed small in comparison with the huge crowds we've seen on the tour. It went straight well, then straight after we came off stage we got on the tour bus and travelled down to Madrid, arriving there at about 10 o'clock the next morning.

That was Saturday, so we went straight to our hotel to catch up on a few hours sleep 'cos we don't get a lot on the bus! About 4pm we all went down to the venue, did the sound check, then hung around for the show that evening when we played to about 4,000 people. Straight afterwards it was back on the tour bus again, this time to drive to Lisbon in Portugal, where thankfully we had the afternoon off. The weather in Barcelona had been quite warm, about 23 degrees but Madrid wasn't so good and it was raining. Lisbon was quite nice though, about 24 degrees, but we didn't have much time to enjoy it. We'd spent the night on the tour bus, so we had to get a few hours sleep before doing the show on Sunday night.

END OF THE TOUR

This was actually the very last night of the tour. It was really good night, with seven or eight thousand people at the show, which was really great because we'd never been to Portugal before. We were both sad and happy to see the end of the tour. Sad because it had gone so well and we had to say goodbye to everybody, but glad too because it had been going on so long and we'd been working so hard and doing so much travelling that we were kind of glad to slow down for a while. Everybody had been getting sort of tired the last few weeks, and it was nice to look forward to a change and to doing something different for a while. Anyway, we didn't have a big party or anything that night. Instead, we all went round to this Irish bar round the corner and had our own sort of farewell party - a few drinks together, ourselves, the crew and that, but nothing mad.

The tour might be over now, but we're still on Europe as I write, and doing promotions and that sort if thing. That started on Monday, but we knew that we'd have a bit of night out on Sunday at the end of the tour, so nothing was scheduled in until Monday afternoon! We slept late, then headed out at about 3pm to do a press conference on a boat.

The weather was really nice so we took this boat out on the river and had some photos done and some interviews and that, and even got a bit of sun! Straight after getting off the boat though, we got into cars and headed to the airport, where we got a flight back to Madrid. We arrived that night, but were all pretty wrecked so we just relaxed for an hour or so, then had an early night. Tuesday was spent doing promotion. We did a big TV show, which is sort of like Top of the Pops, and performed five songs on that. Then later that evening we pre-recorded another TV show, which is sort of a Spanish Late Late show. We performed Uptown Girl, then got straight on a bus headed over to do an hour - long interview on a radio station that's like the 2fm if Spain! After that it was back to the hotel. We were pretty hungry by this time, but as it was 11 o'clock we settled for something small to eat and went straight to bed. Wednesday morning it was up again to more promotion. We did another TV show at 2 o'clock that afternoon - pre-recorded to go out later - then we went on to do about five smaller TV interviews for different shows. After that we had about four hours off, so we actually got to lie in the sun!

That night we went out for a meal in an Italian restaurant - myself, Nicky, Shane, Bryan and Mark. Kerry and Georgina came with us, as they had come over to join us. Kerry is coming close to the end of her pregnancy, but she's doing great and looks terrific. It was great to have an evening out together and just relax, knowing we didn't have to jump on the tour bus and head off through the night!

GOING TO ITALY

This morning we got on a plane to Milan, and from there to Naples. Right now, as I said, we're headed up to another town about an hour away, where we'll be doing a show on Saturday. It's kind of like a radio roadshow, like a Beat on the street, so it should be fun. Then tomorrow we have the day off and Sunday morning we fly home. Everybody's fine and looking forward to getting home for those few days before heading off to Sweden. We'll be recording there for most of the summer, getting the new album together. Our next single is more than likely coming out in the middle of summer. We're releasing When You're Looking Like That, and we may have a double side with Lay My Love on You but we're not 100% sure yet. Tell you more next week! But right now I have to go. We're just arriving at the roadshow venue and I have to pack up the laptop. The rest of the lads send their love, as usual