Hello!

I love to cook and live to eat!

I guess you could say I’m a natural born foodie. I grew up around food. My mother was Italian from a family of chefs, and my English dad was a master baker. As kids we always had to help in the kitchen, me shelling peas and the like, while my brothers were put to help wash up.  When I was around around 12 years, old Mum let me help her cook.

But I didn’t start out in a food career. Before putting on my apron, I spent some 30 years as a fashion designer, with 12 of those years spent living and working in Paris. My work took me to every corner of France and Italy, where I’d spend weeks at a time in factories nestled in glorious countryside. These travels gave me a unique food education. Every day I got to eat and learn about the wonderful regional and seasonal cuisines of France and Italy, and, as a bonus, I even got to cook with some of the great Italian grandmas I got to know. Later on, I spent a great deal of time in Asia, starting with Japan, while I still lived in France,  then on to Hong Kong, China and Korea. I always let my hosts know I was a fearless eater and got to try all manner of foods off the beaten track. I loved it.

It was going through treatment for my second cancer that brought me to a career in food. I realized my cooking skills and my wide knowledge of food were giving me choices that made this gruelling experience much easier for me than for many of my fellow travellers in cancer. Nutritionists can tell you what foods to eat, but you cannot truly make changes to your diet without knowing how to cook them. Cooking is the first step to healthy eating.

This led me to start free cooking classes to teach patients the basic cooking skills that turn fresh fruits and vegetables into wonderful meals. These classes and recipes eventually became the free non-profit cooking site for cancer patients Cook for your LIFE. As of writing, Cook for Your LIFE has taught thousands of patients in person, and helped millions through the website. In 2019 I handed over the day to day running of my culinary baby into the capable hands of my longtime academic collaborator Dr. Heather Greenlee and the Fred Hutch cancer Center in Seattle. Then came Covid, which changed everything for me as it did for so many others.

During the isolation and craziness of that time, my husband and I took time to rethink things, and in 2024 we made the move back to the UK that we had thought about before Covid struck.  It’s good to be home.  I’m finally back to my roots and in love all over again with the rolling countryside around where we live by the sea, the ancient villages, the beach, not to mention the high-quality local food. I love having France a hop and a skip away too, not to mention Italy and Spain, and it’s been great reconnecting with friends in Paris.

Nonetheless I find I miss cooking and teaching. I’m mulling over plans to organise a small group trip to the gorgeous Southwest of the UK, in early September 2027. We would be based in a Georgian house in the heart of Glastonbury, the ancient, mystical town that some say is the Avalon of Arthurian myth. There’s so much to see nearby: Glastonbury itself, the Cotswolds, Wells Cathedral, Cheddar Gorge among other things. And there’s a beautiful kitchen we can cook in. I’ll be posting pictures, an itinerary, firm dates and prices in my store during the next few weeks.  I’ll also be posting updates on this via my Instagram. 

In the meantime, if you think you’d be interested in a trip like this, drop us a line at:  [email protected].  Put Glastonbury in the subject line and I’ll put you on our mailing list.