Courtney Smith

This Dublin-based influencer and stylist’s love can be bought pretty cheaply — a bowl of mash when she’s ‘delicate’ will do the trick

What did your mother make you?

Shepherd’s pie — but I grew up in the 1990s, so Uncle Ben’s was a big deal at the time, and we had a lot of those stir-fries!

The first dish you ever cooked?

I actually won the Cert Irish Young Chef of the Future when I was 13 — the winning meal was three courses, including a creamy cod bake, but my cooking abilities rapidly decreased after that, and they are pretty limited now.

What is your hangover cure?

Mashed potatoes — the more creamy and buttery, the better! If I’m hung-over and you bring me a big bowl of that, I will love you forever.

What do you drink?

Gin and tonic. Hendrick’s, Gunpowder or Monkey 47... all the good stuff.

You can only eat three things for the rest of your life. What are they?

Seafood; chocolate; and mashed potato.

The most appetising aroma?

The smell of someone else making you breakfast while you are still in bed!

How important is food to you?

When I’m going on holidays, I organise the restaurants we eat at before I even bother looking at a hotel or anything else.

You can go anywhere and have anything to eat with any one person. Where, what and who?

Paris, seafood, Iris Apfel.

Favourite restaurant in Ireland?

Anywhere with good seafood. For something casual, I love Octopussy’s in Howth; Bastible in Dublin 8 is amazing, and The Mews Restaurant in west Cork is next on my hit list.

What’s always in your kitchen?

Red wine and gin.

Favourite restaurant abroad?

I love Sushi Samba—it’ s Japanese Brazilian-Peruvian sushi in London.

What’s your sweet treat?

Creme brulee — I’m still searching for the best one in Ireland, but if a restaurant has it on the dessert menu, I’m a happy woman.

What do you refuse to eat?

Nothing. I’ll try anything once. Actually, wait, I don’t think I could stomach haggis, even though I’m part Scottish.

Are you careful about what you eat?

Yeah, definitely. I love good food and I indulge every now and again; however, Monday to Friday, I try to eat as clean as possible. I work out at CrossFit 353 around five days a week, so it would be wasted if I didn’t have a good diet teamed with it.

Worst meal ever?

I was on a shoot in Chinatown in New York with photographer Alex Hutchinson, and it was a really long day. We were starving, so he googled to see what restaurants were nearby. We should have known, because we were the only people in the entire restaurant and the menu had photos in it. Everything looked and — I assume — tasted like chicken feet, but we were so jet-lagged and hungry, we just ended up hysterically laughing and getting drunk instead.

What’s your perfect family meal?

Anything with my family there; we usually end up drinking wine and chatting so much, I wouldn’t even notice what I am eating.

“I’ll try anything once. Actually, wait, I don’t think I could stomach haggis”