Feedback with Adele Roberts

FEEDBACK WITH ADELE ROBERTS

With her delicate, elfin features and killer smile Adele Roberts looks the picture of health, it's hard to believe she has been through a gruelling fight with bowel cancer.

Diagnosed during COVID, Adele took up the baton to battle the disease head on. Now cancer free, she’s not one to let the grass grow under feet, and having her stoma doesn't seem to stop her. This year she broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest woman to complete the London Marathon with a stoma bag (3 hrs, 30 mins 22 seconds), co-wrote her first book Personal Best with her girlfriend Kate, and still found the energy to glide gracefully across our television screens in Dancing on Ice, skating her way into the final - she seems unstoppable with her energy and optimism.

Here she tells us why rabbit-shaped blancmange reminds her of her childhood, why garlic salt saves her cooking and why popcorn is off the menu for the moment!

You can win a copy of Adele’s book, see our competition below.

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Do you cook, and if so, what do you like to cook?
I do now. This was a big mistake of mine when I was younger, I used to eat convenience food, so I used to pay for food twice – that’s how I look at it now, if you buy convenience you’re paying twice, and I used to microwave everything. But now I try to cook what I call real food, so it doesn’t come in a packet, it’s made by nature and it’s fresh. One of my favourite dishes is something called a naked burrito which I was taught to make by The Body Coach. It’s basically making the burrito but without the tortilla wrap, and it’s got rice, steak, kidney beans and harissa, it’s lovely. I try and eat as much natural food as possible.

What food always reminds you of your childhood?
I’m going to be really honest with you now… Spam! My mum would get it for me as a treat, and there was a lady she used to get to babysit me and I never knew her name, I only knew her as Mark’s mum and she used to make an amazing pink blancmange in a rabbit shaped mould, and it was my favourite. So, Spam and pink blancmange are the two things that remind me of being a child!

Do you have a current favourite restaurant or type of restaurant?
Yes! I love British food and there’s a beautiful restaurant called The Three Fishes in Clitheroe run by Nigel Haworth. Then in Southport there’s a restaurant called The Vincent, I love it in there, surf ‘n’ turf is my go-to. If there’s a restaurant that does scallops and steak, I am happy.

What food or ingredient could you not do without?
Now that I cook – garlic salt, it rescues my dodgy cooking! It makes things taste amazing. It’s my secret weapon and it just saves any dish I promise you.

What was the most memorable meal you can remember eating?
Well, this is going to sound fancy, but it’s not. My girlfriend Kate won a competition and we got to go to Paris, but we had no money whatsoever, and we stumbled on this restaurant quite near Notre Dame, called Bouillon Chartier. It like an amazing high-class Parisian restaurant, but it was really cheap. The tablecloths were all crisp white paper, and they wrote your order on it, then totalled it all up at the end and you paid your bill. The wine hardly cost anything, and we had steak frites, it all tasted amazing.

Is there something in particular you always keep in the fridge?
Yes, I love the Belazu range, and they do a lot of different types of pesto and my favourites are Truffle and Artichoke, a lovely Wild Mushroom one and a Rose Harissa. I always have them as a condiment on the side.

How does your eating regime, pre cancer diagnosis and treatment, compare with now?
I’ve totally cleaned up my diet. I’d started getting into shape before I was diagnosed, and I think that helped me find the cancer because when my body started to suffer, I knew there was something wrong. Whereas I think the old me, when I was very overweight and had bad eating habits, I don’t think I would have noticed as soon as I did. I try and eat natural food, and as I still have the stoma there are some things I can’t really eat too much of. I must be very careful with vegetables and salad because it's hard for my body to break them down. So, I mainly eat protein now.

Is there anything you can no longer eat?
Fermented food, which is annoying because I know how important gut health is, things like kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha are all hard for my body to break down because they’re a bit gassy. But if you don’t have a stoma, eat them, they’re good for you! Oh, and one more thing. Popcorn – it gets stuck, do not have any popcorn!

What would be your last supper if literally anything was available to you, who would you be with and where would you eat it?
Well, I would be with Kate and it’s our dream to dine with Kathy Hilton. We watch Real Housewives of Beverley Hills and Kathy Hilton is obsessed with jacket potato and caviar. It’s so bizarre, it’s all she eats! But I think I’d like to eat that with her. I don’t really drink alcohol, I do love Schloer, they do a sugar free one now – but maybe as it’s my last supper I’d go for it and have full sugar!

Personal Best published by Hodder & Stoughton is out now in hardback (£22)

We have two copies of Personal Best to be won in our competition - click here to enter