Model mum Pippa turns chef for new Restaurant season

television

Tv3 Autumn Schedule launch at the Aviva Stadium Dublin Pippa O'Connor

Eimear Rabbitt

She used her modelling profile to help build her successful fashion blog and now Pippa O'Connor is turning her attention to the kitchen.

The Kildare native is one of the celebrities lined up for the new season of popular food critic show The Restaurant, and the programme's experts were very impressed with model Pippa's cooking ability.

Pippa O'Connor-Ormond has also landed a book deal.

Cooking and a love of food runs in the family for the 29-year-old as her mum, Louise Mullen - who passed away in 2014 - was a Cordon Bleu-trained chef.

"Pippa was in filming with us for the new season of the show and she was great," the star of TV3's The Restaurant and leading pastry chef Louise Lennox told the Herald.

"She loved cooking deserts, so I joked that I would swap cooking tips for make-up tips.

"We got on really well during filming. Her mum was a chef, so I think it meant a lot to her as her mum used to teach her to cook.

"I was surprised at how much food knowledge she had," added Louise .

Pippa, who is expecting her second child with her husband, presenter Brian Ormond, was devastated when mum Louise died suddenly in October 2014 and has previously said how she has always looked up to her.

Brian Ormond and Pippa O'Connor

The model-turned blogger - who is mum to Ollie (2) - is lined-up for the new season of the show alongside former Irish soccer star Kevin Kilbane.

Other celebrity participants have yet to be unveiled.

The new season of the critic show was filmed in celebrity chef Marco Pierre White's Courtyard Bar & Grill restaurant in Donnybrook late last year.

The British chef, who also owns an eatery on Dublin's Dawson Street, will feature this year as a full-time critic, taking over from the late Paolo Tullio, who worked on the TV programme for many years.