INSPIRATIONS: celebrity chef Nadia Lim

It’s been a busy year for celebrity chef Nadia Lim 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 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).