Tastemaker

Celebrity chef Rachel Allen: ‘I was a Foxrock girl, I never dreamed I would end up living on a farm in the country’

The famous chef and teacher has written 14 cookbooks while her TV cookery shows have been broadcast in 30 countries

Rachel Allen: ‘I think it’s really great to have the drive to follow your dreams though not everyone realises their dreams early on and that’s okay as long as you have fun finding your passion’

Rachel Allen is a bestselling cookery writer, TV chef and teacher at the world-famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork. But it was far from rural Shanagarry that she was raised.

“I was a proper Dublin girl, brought up in Foxrock. I never dreamed I would end up living on a farm in the country,” she says. “I had dreams of being a dancer, an actress or a shoe designer but my parents encouraged me to ...