Rachel Allen
What’s your earliest holiday memory?
One of my earliest holiday memories is from Menorca. The evenings were most exciting. We’d wash off our sun cream and get changed for dinner. After dinner – when our parents were still in the restaurant – we’d run off to a nearby square to play with our new Spanish friends who were the ultimate in exoticness! I also remember my parents bringing my sister and I to nudist beaches. There was one on an island off Ibiza where we cringed watching the men play tennis.
What was your worst holiday?
Really no holiday is bad because getting away is lovely. But one year when the boys were small we went to Lanzarote. We left on New Year’s Day and were so excited about getting some sun. I assumed it was going to be hot and sunny but didn’t bring anything to wrap around any of us. It was really cold, windy and it rained.
What was your best holiday?
When Scarlett was about six months old we all went with an au pair to a boat in the Greek islands for a week. It was a friend’s boat so we were lucky to have people there to sail it. It was heavenly. We went to a different island every day where we would hop off and go to a restaurant. The boys used to do wakeboarding and tubing and would catch fish off the boat. We thought there was a travel cot but when we arrived there was none so Isaac lined our suitcase with pillows and she slept there.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?
I’d love to do a great big adventure with all the family for six weeks. We’d go somewhere that the food is great, simple but delicious, perhaps around Italy or when the children are a little older, Asia.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?
A week with all of my family including my parents and my sister, and another week with my friends. One week wouldn’t necessarily be madder than the other.
What’s your favourite place in Ireland?
If I won the lotto I’d like to buy a house in west Cork so I could just arrive an hour after leaving my door.
Your recommended holiday reading?
I’m hooked on Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø’s fantastic books since reading The Snowman.
Where will you go to next?
I would love to go to Sicily next summer with my husband and children, my parents, my sister and her family. My friend has told me of some restaurants that chef Giorgio Locatelli goes to that I will look up.
Rachel Allens Easy Mealsis on Thursdays on RTÉ 1 with companion book published by Collins (£25)
In conversation with
GENEVIEVE CARBERY