I’m a teacher, food writer, speaker, consultant and blogger, passionate about inspiring others to source, prepare and eat great food, putting whole grains and pulses firmly back on the menu. My experience and knowledge has been gleaned over years of eating, researching, travelling and working as a cook.

After training at Leith’s School of Food and Wine in London I spent a couple of years in America and Australia before joining an Italian yacht as the chef. My love of Mediterranean cooking stems from the years I spent onboard.

I have a close connection with Spain having studied Spanish and Catalan at university and lived in Barcelona. My work in Spain as a restaurant consultant for a small chain of boutique hotels gave me the opportunity to travel widely and research my two Spanish cookbooks.

Nowadays I’m determined, through my teaching and writing, to introduce everyone to the delicious benefits of eating whole foods, so integral to the Mediterranean diet. My latest book Pulse reflects my “more hip than hippi” take on the subject. Consuming less, but better quality, meat is something I advocate too. As a result of my love for legumes, I was asked by the United Nations FAO to be their European Special Ambassador for the 2016 International Year of Pulses during which I spoke on the subject at the United Nations FAO in Rome, the World Health Symposium, and the American Foodfluence Convention in Vienna.

I approach my teaching, consultancy and writing with great energy and enthusiasm; I aim to inspire as much as inform. Getting kids in the kitchen cooking from scratch is hugely important to me and something I find inspiring. I frequently blog and write on this subject, getting my daughter Imogen involved in cooking. My book ‘Cool Kids Cook’ was published in 2016.