A seat at Little Lou’s table
Chef Lou Robbins has created a space on social media that feels authentically her own, but accessible to all. She tells Marie Kelly how she hit 1 million followers and what’s next for her growing food empire.
Lou Robbie is the quintessential multi-hyphenate – chef, author, influencer, entrepreneur, wife and mother. On her Instagram feed, @littleloucooks, the 44-year-old looks every inch the cool, calm and collected professional who has always known exactly where she belongs in the world.
Refreshingly, the mum-of-two didn’t set out with a firm career plan. Her culinary fame and social media success – she reached one million Instagram followers in March – has surprised her as much as it has delighted her. But Robbie has always trusted her instincts, following where they led rather than sticking to a fixed path.
She remembers her instinct first kicking in when she was working in an office after finishing her degree in business in Liverpool. Realising the 9-5 life wasn’t for her, she left to travel around Australia and New Zealand. When she returned to Ireland and visited friends in Galway for a weekend, she followed her gut again, deciding to stay despite having grown up in Tipperary and Tyrone. From there, she followed her love of food, retraining as a chef at GMIT and going on to work in some of Galway’s most celebrated restaurants, including Ard Bia and Cava Bodega.
But it was the more modest setting of the now-closed Kitchen Café in Galway that set her on the path to her current success. “It was a really wholesome family-run cafe,” explains Robbie. I got married while I was working there and I had my children and it’s where I developed my love of feeding families. I began to really lean into that family food culture,” she says.
Her instinct proved right once again. When Covid nudged her into establishing an online presence, she took a leap of faith and set herself up as a sole trader under the moniker Little Lou Cooks – a playful name inspired by a friend who dubbed her ‘Little Chef’ because she is a foot shorter than her husband, also a chef. It was her healthy, homemade family recipes that gave her social media feed its momentum and when a reel featuring prepare-ahead lunchbox snacks went viral, it made this Galway mum, and her home kitchen, almost instantly famous. “That was three years ago; now I have a global following,” she explains. “And every September I share very similar lunchbox ideas because there’s such a demand for it,” says Robbie.
It was her healthy, homemade family recipes that gave her social media feed its momentum and when
a reel featuring prepare-ahead lunchbox snacks went viral, it made this Galway mum, and her home kitchen, almost instantly famous.
There’s a famous quote from a Canadian entrepreneur: “People don’t care about your business. They care about their problems. Be the solution that they’re looking for.” This is exactly what Little Lou Cooks offers – endless ideas for how to feed a family well when you’re a busy parent balancing the daily juggle of getting everyone fed alongside the endless other jobs that await you before and after a working day.
This solutions-based approach has propelled Robbie’s first cookbook Make & Freeze – released last year – back into the Irish bestseller Top 10 this month; the book contains 30 lunchbox recipes in a collection of 100 healthy, tasty and inexpensive meals that can be made ahead and frozen. Her problem-solving style is also the driving force behind her new venture, Prepa, a range of freezer-friendly storage containers she launched in July with Siobhan Berry (aka @mummycooks).
“It’s about encouraging meal-prepping and freezing,” explains Robbie, “by providing the right containers.” The range includes reusable food bags, which last long enough to replace 500-plus single-use plastic bags, and five different-sized portion pots, all of which are leak-proof and airtight. “The 2.5-litre bags are ideal for soups and sauces, and the pots make it easy to portion out individual meals, so you only defrost what you need rather than taking an entire bag of bolognese from the freezer,” she says. “It’s all about building good habits.”
Perhaps the smartest feature of all is the single lid, which fits all five pots, meaning no more ransacking cupboards for matching sets. Prepa seems to prove the point that simplicity is the key to brilliance. “Prepa has been really well received so far. We’ve gained almost 8,000 followers on Instagram in just over a month, but it feels very organic too,” says Robbie.
She’s currently writing and testing recipes for her second cookbook, due out in July 2027 – she’s giving no spoilers – and regularly gives cooking demonstrations and talks at food events around the country, including Taste of Sligo, WellFest and the Ballymaloe Festival of Food. Add in TV appearances on Ireland AM, radio contributions and brand ambassadorships to the mix, and Robbie’s working life must be running at the relentless pace she knew as a professional chef.
“It can be 24/7,” she admits. “I never switch off, but recently I’ve been trying to keep filming from Monday to Friday.” Robbie fully recognises how crowded the creator economy is and how fortunate she is to have carved out a space that feels authentically hers. “I’m so lucky that I’ve arrived at a place where I’m creating the content I want to and working with really great brands that fit with my life.”
And her thoughts about the future? “I’ve great growth ahead and I’m excited about what’s to come,” she says. Given Robbie’s track record, I’ve no doubt her instinct will prove spot-on once again.
Originally published in Galway Now, Autumn 2026