IF YOU struggle to comprehend the enduring appeal of the bagel, you've never eaten an authentic one. Certainly, some of varieties sold in Irish delis and even some bagel chains contravene some trade description act. In New York and London, the bagel purists would string you up. A bagel shouldn't be a lump of dough with a hole in it and it's not a vehicle for a filling. Bagels proper are boiled first, then baked to produce that chewy crust and textured interior. The textbook bagel is made of salt, water, yeast and malt with no nasty additions like vegetable oil to pump it up.

Seasonings like onion and seed toppings like poppy and sesame are perfectly acceptable.

Itsa Bagel imports its products directly from H&H in New York so the pedigree is assured. And thankfully, for owner Domini Kemp, the sensation of biting into that shiny crust has yet to lose its appeal. "It honestly hasn't, " the 35-year old says. "Sometimes I wouldn't be in for a few days, but then I'd have a bagel, and it really is good."

That the Itsa Bagel versions are superior is a message reinforced throughout the four branches dotted around Dublin. Pumpernickel and whole wheat are the low GI options, a sign on the wall informs. "Our cult classic chunky lentil and vegetable is full of goodness:

virtually fat free, vegan and gluten free, " says another. Kemp wants to make a point but she doesn't want to labour it. "I think people come in and they like the food but they don't understand the amount of work behind the product, in terms of the amount of homemade goodness that goes into everything, " she says. "We need to be a bit more aggressive about getting our message across but I'm always a bit reluctant to ram it down people's throats."

Good ingredients and expertly cooked, simple food are the foundation stones of the little food empire that Kemp and her sister Peaches have built in recent years. Since 1999, Itsa Bagel has expanded as a brand, and been joined by Feast, the catering company; Itsa4 in Sandymount with its family-friendly, comfort-food menu; and now Table, a new space in Brown Thomas, Cork. The menu is similar to Itsa4 - salads, pasta, steak sandwiches - with plenty of sweet treats to boost the depleted blood sugar levels of shoppers. Working with Brown Thomas, Kemp says, is almost like a landlord leasing your business as well. "Your business is a direct reflection on them. They have certain ideas about how they want things done and you have to maintain their standards." She was worried, she admits about losing a certain level of independence, "but at the same time, they want you to do well and be all that you can."

Kemp's former partner is the controversial chef Conrad Gallagher. The two were together for three years and had a daughter, Lauren, now aged nine. They ran Lloyds Brasserie and the Michelin-starred Peacock Alley. Gallagher is now resident in South Africa and cast no shadow on Ireland's restaurant scene except as a cautionary tale of what spreading your talents too thinly can do. Kemp's time with him she describes as being like "30 years of experience. It was just so intense."

Gallagher wanted to do everything and it was Kemp's role to facilitate as many of his ideas as possible. She says he was ambitious to the detriment of his business. Their split meant that Kemp had to find a new job. "I didn't know what I wanted to do? I wanted something daytime because of Lauren and just because I was knackered. I didn't have the energy to start working nights again and I didn't want to go back into a restaurant." The bagel idea had occurred to her and she approached her sister Peaches to come on board. The split opened up an avenue of new career possibilities. "I got to write a book, all sorts of stuff I never would have had the opportunity to have done. For that, I'm hugely grateful, " she says. She doesn't mind discussing Gallagher in the least. "But nobody likes taking about their exes to a certain extent. We're over! But that's the way it is and I can't complain about it. And we have a kid together."

Growing up in the Bahamas, in a family that appreciated good food, sounds like an idyllic childhood and she agrees that it was. After school they would go swimming on Bounty-ad beaches. She was back there at Christmas visiting a half sister who still lives there and it was wonderful going back as a grown up and seeing what you'd taken for granted when young.

But living there permanently would drive her mad. "It's small - nine miles wide and 21 miles long. You'd go crazy and people do, especially meeting my old friends out there. You have to get away and be in a proper country. It's like a permanent holiday."

She studied to be a cook at Leith's School of Food and Wine in London. Prior to that she showjumped professionally until the age of 25 but gave it up when she couldn't secure sponsorship. "It just came to D Day. I didn't want to be traipsing around horse shows in 20 years time, " she recalls. "You have to sell, buy, sell. You've to teach, you've to do anything you can just to make a few quid. It's so bloody expensive." She rides only occasionally now.

"It's a little hard now when you do something up to that level. It's hard to go to a riding school and hop on Neddy."

Within Itsa Bagel, Kemp looks after business development and promotion, while Peaches works closely with the accountant, making sure that they're making money at the end of each year. "If it was up to me, I'd make sure that every penny we made was put back into the shops, " Kemp says. "Peaches is the sensible one; I'd be more of the driver but it works and it balances out well."

She's a food writer as well as a cook, coauthoring New Irish Cookingwith Gallagher, followed by Real Food, Real Fast in 2002, a beautifully photographed, eminently userfriendly cook book. She reviewed restaurants for The Dubliner and has written for Imagemagazine for the last year. Was she wary of criticising her peers? At The Dubliner, she says it could get a bit tricky because of the provocative nature of the magazine. Its4 wasn't in existence then either. "I'm sure people were saying, 'Who the hell does she think she is with her bloody bagel business and she's criticising us?' But at the same time we did have a Michelin star a million years ago so I don't think I came unqualified to the job."

These days, Kemp has left the controversy behind her. "You can't just have glowing reviews every week, but I'd prefer to read about somewhere nice that I'd like to go to rather than somewhere minging." It's nothing she wouldn't say about her own business, which she polices all the time. "It happens in the restaurant business because it's really pressurised and it's hard work; you sometimes don't want to know what's wrong with it, " she says. "Often there are problems, customers complain, and usually it's for a good reason. You have to be big enough to deal with it. I'm like Inspector Clouseau. I want to know exactly what's wrong."

Business success brings welcome changes to other areas of her life. In the early days, when she couldn't afford to hire extra staff, she worked a lot harder, physically. She remembers almost dreading school holidays. "It was 'Oh Jesus, what do I do with Lauren.' She was much younger and it was really tough."

Now she has the luxury of spending a little more time with her. Lauren spent Christmas in South Africa with her father. "She comes back all mature, this little mini world traveller.

She has a little baby brother and another one on the way, and he's a little older now but more fun to play with."

Kemp isn't too enamoured with her daughter's current fixation with Zac Efron, the hot young lead in Disney's High School Musical.

"Suddenly, she's gone from teddies and dolls to Zac. All my friends are pissing themselves laughing, saying, 'Ha ha, you were saying it wouldn't be happening for a few more years.'

Lauren kisses a poster of Zac every night before bed, much to Kemp's mock disgust.

"He's such a cheesy-looking youngster, and I'm like, 'Lauren, he's a pig! How can you fancy him?'" THE DOMINI EFFECT 1995 Studied at Leith's School of Food and Wine, London 1996 Started working in Peacock Alley 1997 Opened Lloyds Brasserie, having given birth to daughter Lauren a month earlier 1998 Peacock Alley awarded a Michelin star 1999 Conrad and Domini split at the start of the year and in December, Itsa Bagel opened in Epecurian Food Hall in Dublin 2001 Opened outlet in Dun Laoghaire 2002 Established Feast, the catering company, Published cook-book Real Food, Real Fast 2003 Fitzwilliam Lane branch of Itsa Bagel opened 2005 Opened Itsa4 restaurant in Sandymount 2006 Opened Itsa Bagel, Sandyford 2007 Opened Table, in Brown Thomas Cork