Profile

Rachel Allen was brought up in Dublin and always loved cooking. She trained at the internationally reputed Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, where she still teaches.

Her philosophy on food is that good ingredients simply prepared will give great results. Her food reflects the demands of her own lifestyle - busy working mother entertaining at home producing simple food classics with her own individual spin that comes from many years of working in an internationally rated establishment.

Biography

In September 2004 RTE, broadcast Rachel’s first series Rachel’s Favourite Food, which was screened on BBC 2 each Saturday morning, and has also been seen in Australia, Italy, Africa and elsewhere. Rachel’s Favourite Food the book to accompany the series was published by Gill & Macmillan. Rachel's follow up book and TV series were both called Rachel’s Favourite Food for Friends and were a huge success. Her third series, Rachel's Favourite Food At Home, this time shown on BBC1, was another smash and the accompanying book, Rachel's Favourite Food at Home (HarperCollins 2006) hit the top of the book charts.  Her fourth series, Rachel's Favourite Food for Living was also shown on BBC 1, the accompanying book Rachel's Food For Living was again published by Harper Collins.

The end of 2008 saw Rachel on our screens with Bake! on UKTV, which enjoyed the highest ever ratings for a show on the channel. The show was also shown on BBC 1 and RTE. The accompanying book, Bake! published was another best-seller. They also published a beautiful Rachel Allen Diary for 2009.

In 2009, Rachel’s series, Rachel Allen: Home Cooking, was debuted on UKTV first and followed on BBC 1 and RTE. As the title suggests, the series focused on the food that Rachel loves to make at home. There was accompanying book of the same title, published by HarperCollins in September 2009. In 2010, Rachel turned her attentions to entertaining at home, with a series and book to match. The series, Entertaining at Home, was shown on UKTV and RTE and was broadcast around the world in 2011.

September 2011 will herald the release of Rachel’s eighth book Easy Meals, and the TV series will follow on RTE and UKTV in October 2011.

Rachel’s books have been launched in the US and her series Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home has debuted in America on PBS, whilst Bake! Has recently been shown on The Cookery Channel.

As well as having her own series, Rachel is a frequent guest on BBC 1’s Saturday Kitchen, and is one of the lead presenters on UKTV’s and BBC 2’s Market Kitchen.

2008 saw the launch of Rachel’s range of electrical products for Argos, including a compact food processor and health grill. In addition to this, Rachel has launched a tableware range with Tipperary Crystal.  

Rachel has written for many Irish publications including 3 years on Irish lifestyle magazine Image and now has a weekly column in The Irish Mail. She has also contributed to BBC Good Food magazine and AWT At Home magazine.

Updated 24/08/2011