Chef Lou Robbie on her Viral Lunchbox Recipes and Galway Food Picks
Lou Robbie honed her skills in the kitchens of Cava and Ard Bia before she started to share her lunchbox-friendly recipes online as @littleloucooks, amassing an online following of over 800,000 fans.
I’ve always loved food, even as a child. I was never a fussy eater, I would clean my plate and ask for more. I was late to the cooking game though, and couldn’t cook well until I trained to be a chef.
There’s so much creativity and passion in a professional kitchen. Skills are learned and shared with colleagues. It’s a really unique environment.
There are a few cookbooks I go back to again and again, including Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills and Home Sweet Home by Hummingbird Bakery.
My pantry essentials are flour, sugar and eggs for a quick bake and tinned tomatoes and beans for an easy supper.
My top tip for easier school lunches is to batch bake and freeze homemade snacks. My most popular recipes are mini scones, muffins, energy balls and oat bars. Defrost them overnight and pop them in the lunchbox in the morning.
My worth-the-hype kitchen gadget is a microplane for zesting lemon, and finely grating garlic and ginger.
When I’m cooking I listen to The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and The Beatles.
My fantasy dinner party guests would be Billy Connolly, Imelda May, Keith Floyd and Dawn French.
Teaching kids how to cook has taught me that you have to plan a little and make time. Let them have a recipe that’s theirs. My daughter makes “Meabh’s Memory Cookies”; we bake them together on a Friday and have them with big glasses of milk and chat about the week. She named them because we are making special memories.
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