My Guilty Pleasure: Andrew Rudd’s ribs and mash

Throughout Food Month we will have a daily “Guilty Pleasure” feature where well-known faces share their secret treats, from the delicious to the daring to the downright strange. You can win a great prize if your share your guilty pleasure with us. See below for details

“Growing up on a pig farm, we always had a plentiful supply of all things pork-related, including ribs. My mum had a great recipe and she always served the ribs with lovely creamy mashed potatoes.

My fondest memory of this dish goes back to 1990, when my friend Clive Williamson and I were heading off to our first music festival – Féile, affectionately known as the Trip to Tipp. We went off laden with our tents, camping stoves, sleeping bags and, more importantly, our supply of rashers and sausages.

"After a fantastic weekend of Van Morrison, The Saw Doctors, Meat Loaf, Mary Black and many more, we were collected by a great friend, Ciaran Carolan, in his Volkswagen Beetle and arrived home to be greeted with Mum's famous BBQ spare ribs and creamy mashed potatoes. They nearly outshone the festival! To this day, this is still my guilty pleasure."

Andrew Rudd is a chef and food writer. He published his first cookbook, Entertaining with Andrew Rudd, last year. Andrew also features in a new RTÉ TV series on Swipe TV and is opening a new bistro and private venue on Fleet Street, Dublin 2 in January.

To win an overnight stay for two with breakfast at Kelly's Hotel in Dublin plus dinner for two at L'Gueuleton French bistro, just tell us about your guilty pleasure. Whether it's tasty and tempting or odd and embarrassing, we want to hear about it. Email your entry plus your name and phone number to guilty@irishtimes.com and the winner will be announced at the end of Food Month.

[ irishtimes.com/food ]