wang writes

When the boyfriend made a trip home last year, he bought me Rachel Allen’s Bake! cookbook — not that you can’t get it in Singapore, but to buy an Irish cook’s book in Ireland makes it all the more authentic, don’t you think?

Anyhow I’d tried a few recipes from her beautiful collection of recipes, including Irish bread, cupcakes and cakes. Everything turned out fantastic. The book has amazing photography and is well-written; I highly recommend it!

So the story goes: Last week I was offered a list of kitchen celebs to interview — they’re here as part of StarHub’s Hubalicious Food Festival, and will be conducting masterclasses and tastings (Rachel Allen’s is later today at Mandarin Oriental at 3pm). Naturally, among the list, Allen’s name was the first to really appeal to me. I immediately set up an interview with her and it took place yesterday.

You know, I’ve watched her on the telly before (Bake! was on Discovery Travel and Living, her new cooking shows will be on BBC Lifestyle). So I roughly had an idea of what she was like. But nothing prepared me for how warm, friendly and down-to-earth she would be. Gosh, it was like talking to a friend and I hadn’t seen in years. She was truly engaging, passionate about the topic of food, and even bothered to ask me questions herself. Allen is definitely a breath of fresh air. I haven’t interviewed that many cooks I have to say, but where celebs (mainly sports, some entertainment) are concerned, no one has quite come close to how genuinely friendly Allen is. Obviously celebs are usually friendly to the media, cos you really don’t wanna piss off a reporter and get bad press, but you can tell when someone is for real or not. Allen is totally for real.

One of the things she asked me, was: “Why are you wearing two watches?” She thought the pink Power Balance wristband I was wearing was a watch, with its two hologram discs. I told her all about what the wristband reportedly does, and she, being a runner, was quite intrigued. Anyway, since a friend had given me the wristband to test it out, I decided to pass it on and let Allen try it instead. She put it on appreciatively and with glee. I thought it was so sweet of her!

An interesting point that came up during the interview: Her wikipedia entry is full of mistakes! It states she’s born March 21, 1972, when really she’s born Oct 11, 1971. She’s even received birthday cards in March, she says. And previously, wiki had her as a 40-something! Well, that will teach you not to believe everything wiki says.

Look out for the interview with her in Shape magazine.