‘It’s goodbye’: Things get emotional for Donal Skehan on Instagram

Fans of Irish TV chef Donal Skehan will know his Howth home, which he shares with wife Sofie, very well.

It has featured in his RTÉ cookery shows – Kitchen Hero and Cook, Eat, Burn – as well as providing the backdrop for many of his recipe photos. All in all, it's been Donal and Sofie's home for six years, but now the couple are leaving it, and Ireland, behind.

A move to Los Angeles to further his career as a celebrity chef has long been on the cards for Donal, and with a new Food Network series underway, it seems now is the right time to relocate.

"We’ve done some amazing things in Ireland and now it’s time to do what we do to a wider audience. We’ve a few friends and my uncle lives out there so it won’t be too lonely," he told The Herald last month.

Taking to Instagram this morning, Donal penned an emotional goodbye to his Howth cottage, reliving some of the couple's memories there.

"We said our goodbyes yesterday to the house which was our first home, the place all my shows were shot, the place we worked from, where our neighbours were never short of a big hello," Donal wrote next to a picture of himself and a smiling Sofie at their front door.

"[The house was] where Max came home to for the first time, where we first came home to as a married couple, where we grew veggies out the back all summer long, where the best cliff walks started and finished and where we cooked some of the best dinners and enjoyed the best nights in with friends and family, celebrating birthdays, engagements, babies, anniversaries and more.

"A huge thank you to everyone who crossed the threshold and enjoyed the place as much as we did, for now though it's goodbye to our little Howth home…"

Wishing Donal and Sofie the best of luck with their big move.