We catch up with Nadia Lim on the back of a busy year for the celebrity chef with the arrival of her second son, River, in September and the recent release of her new cookbook, Fresh Start, Feel Good!
My favourite pet growing up…
Was our retriever-collie cross dog called Carlos (who coincidentally had the same name as my husband!). Note: Carlos the dog came on the scene way before Carlos the husband.
The last thing I baked or cooked was…
This morning, a caramel crumble slice – it was ridiculously yummy and I can’t stop slicing bits off it now.
The three books I’m lining up to read this summer are…
Eating on the Wild Side, Soda Politics, Letters to a Young Farmer. I’m a real geek and pretty much only read books on food, farming and health!
The fictional character that most reminds me of myself is…
Pocahontas.
The most memorable overseas adventure I’ve had is…
Vietnam, when Carlos and I were young, wild and free from kids! We did lots of things we couldn’t ever do now, like take an overnight train where the bunk bed was infested with cockroaches – it was so gross at the time, but now we can look back and laugh, and it was certainly memorable.
The people I would have at my ideal dinner party are…
If I could bring people back, it would be the most amazing thing to bring my Dad back to have a family dinner with his two grandsons, who he never got to meet, and my mum.
My number-one pick for a karaoke song is…
Eye of the Tiger – it always brings the singer out of their shell!
When I’m working hard I unwind by…
Taking a mini break away for a few days, camping or staying in a little bach, with no phones, TV or social media.
My fondest childhood memory is…
Family beach holidays in Malaysia on Pangkor Island, spending hours and hours catching hermit crabs, collecting shells, digging water trenches and burying my younger brother and sister in the sand. At sunset we’d pack up, have a hot shower and I’d get dressed up with a flower behind my ear and go to a buffet dinner (you can imagine, as a kid obsessed with food, how exciting that was for me).
The last time I cried laughing was…
Haha, well, just a few weeks ago. When my new cookbook Fresh Start, Feel Good! had hit the shelves and gone straight to number one, I also found out (through lots of people who’d purchased the book emailing me) that there was a fly in one of the food photos! While some people would have been mortified, I actually found it freakin’ hilarious that even after proofing the book hundreds of times I’d missed the little rascal!
The quote that motivates me is…
“Your biggest contribution to the world may not be something that you achieve, but someone you raise.”
Hopefully I can raise my children to one day go on to do amazing things to help the world.
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