Whoever oversees Robert Irvine’s travel arrangements probably deserves a raise. During a recent phone interview, Irvine, fresh off one trip (Arizona), was packing for another (Idaho), the next place in a seemingly nonstop lineup of destinations (Charlotte, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Spain and Scotland, just to name a few) on his itinerary over the next several weeks. “I’m busier than a one-armed paper hanger,” he jokes, “but I’m happy.”
The jam-packed schedule isn’t too surprising. After all, you don’t become a celebrity chef, TV personality, cookbook author, businessman, restaurant owner, philanthropist and entrepreneur by loafing around on the sofa.“I’mnot comfortable unless I’m working,” says Irvine. “I can’t sit at home.”
Irvine was born in England in 1965 and joined the Royal Navy when he was a teenager; that’s also when his cooking career began. He became a mainstay in American living rooms after he cemented his status as a regular on the Food Network in the early 2000s, hosting or appearing on a number of popular shows, including Restaurant: Impossible, in which Irvine and his team have 48 hours to save struggling establishments from almost certain closure. “It’s real time, real people, real problems and real solutions,” Irvine says. Lehigh Valley foodies may remember that a taping for an episode of the show in 2013 brought Irvine to the now-shuttered Benner Street restaurant in Fountain Hill.
Overall, he’s been accepting these seemingly impossible missions for more than 10 years and admits he may have softened a bit since that very first makeover. “I feel I’ve gotten a little bit more human,” Irvine says. “I think I learned to listen a little bit more, and then react.” And part of that wisdom came from grappling with the challenges of fostering his own businesses and endeavors over the years. Irvine has penned four cookbooks and launched his own online magazine. He also has a namesake food brand as well as Fit Crunch, a line of protein bars and protein powder. Most recently, Irvine, long a proponent of exercise and body building (he’s been known to eschew the traditional chef’s jacket in favor of a body-hugging T-shirt), decided to get into the clothing business with the launch of Apollo, a line of fitness apparel.
That’s not to say that everything Irvine touches turns to gold, especially when there’s a global pandemic involved. Irvine had two restaurants under his belt—Public House in Las Vegas, and Fresh Kitchen inside the Pentagon—when it was announced in the summer of 2019 that he would be opening a new Fresh Kitchen inside the fledgling Downtown Allentown Market. But COVID-19 reared its head just a couple of months after the market opened. “I loved Allentown,” Irvine says. “I loved the concept [of the restaurant]. COVID killed that right off the bat, unfortunately.” The market was forced to close for several months, and when it reopened for takeout in June of 2020, Fresh Kitchen was no longer among its vendors. While Irvine has no plans to open another restaurant in the Lehigh Valley in the immediate future… never say never. “I would love to get back into that at the right time,” he says.
And luckily for his local fans, Irvine’s busy travel schedule does include a stop in the Lehigh Valley in the very near future. He’ll be making an appearance at Lehigh Valley Style’s Best Of party this month, offering samples and whipping up cocktails featuring his brand of spirits. Irvine’s gin and vodka are distilled at Lansdale’s Boardroom Spirits, of which Irvine is a part-owner. According to Irvine, the recipes for his namesake spirits are his own. “I wanted an American dry gin,” he says. “I scoured the country and the world, went to Sri Lanka and picked up cinnamon. The botanicals in the gin and the vodka are what I use in food. That’s how it all started.”
Irvine’s go-to cocktail? That depends on his mood. He’s a big-time vodka-cranberry guy, but also is known to kick back with a Moscow Mule or Tom Collins. He won’t say no to a pint of beer or a glass of red, either. “I like unusual wines,” Irvine says. He cites Australia’s Mollydooker Blue Eyed Boy shiraz as one of his top picks. And while we’re on the subject of indulgences, don’t mistake Irvine’s buff physique for that of a man who doesn’t know his way around a Twix or Milky Way candy bar. “I believe every meal should end with something sweet,” says Irvine. Does he also partake in the occasional (gasp!) Big Mac and strawberry milkshake? You bet.
Of all the projects that Irvine has on his plate at any given moment, perhaps he’s most proud of what he does with the Robert Irvine Foundation, which he created in 2014 after working alongside actor and veterans’ advocate Gary Sinise. “It’s basically to take care of our veterans and first responders that I feel have been left behind,” Irvine says. “It’s up to individual folks and foundations to fill in the gaps where the government can’t.” The foundation offers support in a number of ways, such as providing service dogs and “standing” wheelchairs to wounded veterans as well as offering scholarships to the children of military parents, and preparing meals to be served at military bases and firehouses. “Freedom is not free,” says Irvine. “We see it every day with our first responders, our police officers, our firefighters, our doctors and nurses as well as our men and women who wear the cloth of the nation.”
chefirvine.com | irvinespirits.com | robertirvinefoundation.org
Published as "Insight" in the July 2022 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
