Stephen, aka Chef Stevie B, is also one of the co-founders of popular health food spot Seed
After finding his passion for food and cooking almost two decades ago, a NI chef is set to share his tips and tricks on one of the country's most famous stages.
Stephen Beaddie, aka Chef Stevie B, is on a mission to help get people cooking and eating better with his first-ever live shows at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
Plate Up with Stevie B are two standalone live events, taking place on February 12 and April 11, that will combine food, nutrition, conversation and practical cooking, designed to help people cook better, eat better and feel better.
Ahead of his first show next week, Plate Up for Flavour which focuses on how to make healthy food delicious, Stephen chatted to Belfast Live about his cooking journey - from leaving school to co-founding one of NI's top health food spots.
He said: "School didn't go very good for me but I got a job when I was 15 in a kitchen - I started cooking and got into it. School then let me go to work instead of going to school all the time, so it worked out quite well for me.
"Then I grew to just fall in love with cooking, fall in love with food and it was only about seven years ago that I started focusing on healthy, nutritious food after breaking my leg."
Alongside being a private chef for retreats and events and growing a massive online following for his recipes and nutrition advice, Stephen is the co-founder of Seed Salad, a health food spot with three locations across NI.
"Seed came from Peter and Kelly, brother and sister - two amazing people, really hardworking, ambitious people and they came up with a concept and they needed a chef," he explained.
"I was the man to deliver that wing of the operation so then we joined forces, and the rest is history - healthy fast food.
"We opened our first store in Dungannon, which is Co Tyrone, so that big catchment and selling salads was not the norm around there.
"So we learned as we went on and developed - it's good to have an option that people can come in quick, easy, convenient and they can feel good. We're really happy with how things are going."
At the first show next week, audiences can expect vibrant dishes, humour and practical advice that can be taken straight into the home kitchen.
Plate Up for Performance, the second live show, Stephen will explore high-flavour meals that fuel strength, focus and recovery, without overcomplicating nutrition and will be joined by Tony O’Neill and Jen Curran, founders of Tony & Jen’s.
The idea to take his skills and knowledge and present them live on stage came from when Stephen ended up by chance cooking for the Waterfront Hall CEO at a retreat in Spain.
"After it, he said 'how does Chef Stevie B at the Waterfront sound?' And I said 'sounds good'. So here we are," he laughed.
On what he wants audiences to take from the shows, he continued: "I think recipes are good but they are just a map - with these shows, I want to show people the territory and show them how to cook with confidence without having to rely on recipes and just cook intuitively.
"How to use salt, how to use acidity, how to use aromatics, use fats to bring it all together and just cook with a bit of freedom.
"If you actually cook for yourself and cook for your family and have an understanding of what goes in your food, that's a really good place to start and you can become more aware of what you're putting into your body."
Stephen said he is most looking forward to trying his hand at something new and "seeing what [he's] made of" with the live shows and thanked the Waterfront team for helping him achieve a dream he didn't even realise he had.
"When I was nine, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome so I had a real thing for smells, textures - I would not do anything I was told and I didn't like the feel and the smell of food.
"So for me to be doing this, anyone who knows me right up until I was about 24, they would have said that this was impossible, this would have never happened.
"And here we are."
