Star Chefs · Rachel Allen

Book

Cooking Along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way

Thibault Van de Sompele By Thibault Van de Sompele 2 min read Published

In Short

In 2015 Rachel Allen publishes Coast: Recipes from Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way, followed by Recipes from My Mother in 2016. Her books pass a million copies sold.

  • Coast: Recipes from Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way came out in 2015[1].
  • Recipes from My Mother followed in 2016, and Home Baking in October 2017[1].
  • Her books have sold over a million copies worldwide[2][3].
  • She writes a cookbook most years, each taking about a year[4].

Books have been at the heart of Rachel Allen's career from the very start. Her first, Rachel's Favourite Food, came out in 2004[2]. A decade later she was still writing, and still finding new stories to tell[1].

The Wild Atlantic Way

In 2015 she published Coast: Recipes from Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way[1]. The title names the famous coastal route that runs down the west of Ireland, a long way from her kitchen in east Cork.

A Book For Her Mother

In 2016 came Recipes from My Mother[1]. As the title says, it looked back to her mother's cooking. A year later, in October 2017, HarperCollins published Home Baking[1].

She works at a steady pace. She told the Shropshire Star that she writes a cookbook most years, and that each one takes about a year from start to finish[4].

A Big Shelf

The numbers add up. Her own site counts 14 books with more than a million copies sold worldwide[2]. The Kennedy Summer School put it at 15 bestselling books and more than two million copies[1]. Ballymaloe also lists titles such as Bake, Cake, Easy Meals and Soup, Broth, Bread[3].

Her books follow her TV shows, so readers can watch a dish and then cook it at home[3]. Others stand on their own, like Coast and Recipes from My Mother[1].

Words Beyond Books

She writes beyond cookbooks too. She has a weekly column in the Irish Mail on Sunday and has written for Image, Olive, Delicious and BBC Good Food Magazine[1][3].

Each new book also gives her new material for the classroom. At Ballymaloe she runs classes built around her own recipes, so a dish tested for a book can end up on a student's chopping board[3].

A million copies means a lot of kitchens. Her books were written to be used, with splashes on the pages, not kept on a coffee table[2][3].

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from these sources. Each number in the text points to the source it came from.

  1. Press Kennedy Summer School: Rachel Allen | Kennedy Summer School Wexford Co Ireland · kennedysummerschool.ie · consulted
  2. Official Rachel Allen: Rachel Allen Chef rachelallen.com · consulted
  3. Official Ballymaloe Cookery School: Rachel Allen ballymaloecookeryschool.ie · consulted
  4. Press Shropshire Star: Rachel Allen on working with Yummy Brummy Glynn Purnell and My Kitchen Rules UK · shropshirestar.com · consulted