'Great fun' Rachel Allen reveals she gets her looks and tastes from Icelandic mum

Rachel Allen has opened up about her relationship with her “amazing mum.”

The celebrity chef, who grew up in Foxrock, Co Dublin, said her mother is "great fun."

“She is the most amazing mum – very kind and very calm. She’s great fun, you always feel better by just being around her,” she told RSVP Magazine.

“Mum doesn’t sweat the small stuff. There have been a few crises when I’ve gone to her and she puts everything into perspective by making you realise that things are not near as difficult as you think.”

“She takes things in her stride and never flies off the handle.”

"We are so lucky to still have her because many people I know don’t have their mums and that is very sad,” she continued.

“The great thing is that she is fit and healthy and plays tennis and golf. She also goes to lunch with her friends and has a full and happy life.”

Allen said that she is often told that she looks like her mother.

“People say I look very like my mum and we do speak alike, but so does my sister. I would have parts of my dad in me too – I’m very sensitive in some ways, which is similar to him.”

“I don’t think I do anything differently to what my mum did in terms of parenting, maybe she would say that I do! I wouldn’t want to anyway,” she added.

“I always felt very loved growing up and I would like to think that I gave that feeling of love and security to my own children.”

Rachel also admitted that her family are very affectionate.

“We were a very huggy family, and now I am that mum too, smothering my children with affection.”

Rachel’s father Brian O’Neill hails from Ireland while her mother Hallfríður Reichenfeld comes from Iceland.

“I have some of her Icelandic influences, in little ways that I hadn’t even realised until people pointed them out,” she explained.

“I love Nordic and Scandinavian design, I love the flavour of their food, especially the pickles and fish, even though I wasn’t brought up eating it all the time.”

“I’d love to go back to that part of the world; we used to go there a lot when I was a child but I haven’t been for years.”