Allen is the ultimate pin-up yummy mummy, a modern-day domestic goddess with a serious career. She is immensely talented, has written several bestselling cookbooks, has a successful husband and two beautiful boys and still manages to look effortlessly gorgeous. On her television show, now in its fourth season, Allen comes across even sweeter than the baked treats she regularly turns out on air. No wonder the public welcomed her impromptu reality check.

As an 18-year-old, Rachel O'Neill didn't realise how an chance decision would have life-changing consequences. With no interest in university and no concrete plans after school, her parents suggested she enrol in Ballymaloe Cookery School in east Cork. She wasn't after a career in food, more a few skills that might, at best, help land a chalet job overseas for the ski season. She certainly didn't expect to find a husband, a TV career and a place in Ireland's most significant food dynasty.

It looked far more likely Rachel would end up in fashion. Her father owned a shoe factory and her mother had two clothes stores in south Dublin. Rachel loved shoes and always dreamed of designing them in New York. As a student she took part in a fashion design course in Dublin with her cousin, Marc O'Neill. But comparing her sketches with Marc's, the now successful fashion designer, she realised he was a natural and that she, most definitely, was not.

Before signing up to the three-month course in Ballymaloe, Rachel visited to check out the facilities. While there she spotted Darina Allen's son Isaac, who she admits falling for straight away. Isaac was away travelling when Rachel became a student two months later, though he'd returned home by the end of her studies.

"When I finished my course I'd no idea what was next for me. Even today I rarely have plans. I'd had a great time in Cork, and on my second or third last day I decided I'd like to stay. I went to Darina who found me a placement in the kitchens at Ballymaloe House; Isaac reckons he was the reason I stuck around, but I like to say he wasn't!"

Romance blossomed between the two while Rachel was waitressing at the cookery school but both were young and didn't want to take things too seriously. As planned, Isaac moved to Paris to work with a fashion photographer, which, Rachel admits, made him seem even more cool and interesting to her. She stayed put, eventually working for 18 months at Ballymaloe House where she realised that while she loved food cheffing wasn't for her. Isaac had moved home and she was now living with him in a cottage at the cookery school, where she'd occasionally be asked to help out if someone was sick. "I'd only be helping out in the background but I loved the atmosphere and being around people. This made me realise I was interested in teaching."

In the beginning she helped with the prep work, working alongside Darina and shadowing other teachers' cookery demonstrations. "It was a brilliant opportunity to improve my skills. My family was delighted I'd found something I really enjoyed but they couldn't believe I'd taken to life in the country so enthusiastically."

While some may find it tricky working with their boyfriend's mother, it never fazed Rachel. She welcomed the chance to get to know Isaac's family on independent terms, although admits outsider comments about history repeating itself began to scare her a little. (Years earlier Darina O'Connell had married into the Allen clan and become part of the Ballymaloe legacy started by her pioneering mother-in-law, Myrtle Allen). "I was only 21 or 22 and I panicked a little. I wasn't sure I was ready for this big responsibility." Taking a measured approach, Rachel stepped back regularly from Ballymaloe, allowing herself to try new things and reflect on a future others saw as a foregone conclusion.

She and Isaac spent eight months in Canada in 1994 and she travelled again in 1996 with girlfriends around southeast Asia. By the time she married in 1998 she knew, contrary to what others might have thought, marrying Isaac did not mean she was bound to Ballymaloe forever. She soon asserted this independence.

"I knew I loved the food thing but wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. A friend owns a lovely boutique in Cork and, knowing my love of fashion, offered me the chance to work there for a while. I saw it as a good way to indulge another passion and maybe get it out of my system. I stayed for a year, but I did realise that retail is such a hard business for most people to do well in."

Most importantly, Rachel discovered it was food she most loved working with.

Their first son, Joshua, arrived the following November and Rachel went back to cookery part-time. Her TV break came when she landed the role of assistant on her father-in-law's new cookery show. "Tim was doing his bread show for television, which was being shot in the demo room at Ballymaloe. When I was asked to assist him I didn't think twice. We had a little audience of 10 or 12 people and it was such familiar surroundings for me that I barely even noticed the camera."

The producer noticed her though and approached Rachel about doing another show. A year later, Rachel's Favourite Food was filmed and become an instant hit in Ireland and the UK. Viewers loved her no-nonsense, accessible recipes. Rachel and Isaac now had two small boys . . . Lucca was born in 2002 . . . and by the third series, Rachel's Favourite Food at Home, they had built their dream home on a coastal plot in Shanagarry. Their large kitchen became the set for this series and also features in the new series, Food for Living.

Rachel believes food is intrinsically linked to mood and memories. Her latest book, Rachel's Food for Living, which ties in with the new television series, is a comforting collection of feelgood recipes that just begged to be cooked. As someone who admits to thinking about food 24/7, she has included dozens of uncomplicated dishes to suit every possible mood and occasion, from a lazy Sunday brunch to afternoon tea with friends, a romantic dinner to midweek supper. Because food is best shared she has included several of her family and friend's recipes, and dishes loved by her children. Best of all there's a whole chapter dedicated to chocolate which includes one of Rachel's all-time favourite recipes, chocolate amaretti cake.

Though undeniably an integral part of the Ballymaloe dynasty, Rachel is very much a star in her own right. Not content with her meteoric rise to fame (her shows are aired in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Italy), she has just launched a signature range of tableware. The collection of stoneware, enamelware and linens reflect her personal tastes and mark her out as a heavyweight on the celebrity chef circuit.

But the fame has not gone to her head.

While Rachel refuses to divulge how much fan mail she receives from devoted males she fondly recalls a book-signing in Easons where an ecstatic young boy gave her a comical sense of reality. "He came up to me all wide-eyed and said, 'Is it really you?' He couldn't believe I was sitting in a bookshop in Dublin and asked if I'd sign a book for him. He went off and returned with a few of his friends, who all looked equally thrilled to see me. I finally understood the fuss when I looked down to see he'd handed me a copy of