I definitely wasn’t always into food and cooking. I remember my favourite kid meal was a pizza with the topping scraped off and at Uni a loaf of white bread and some horrible marge! Well at least things have changed haha.
I don’t know when the change started but it was around the time I moved back to London. I changed jobs, flat shared with lots of similar aged folks and I started cooking for them. After travelling around quite a few countries I quickly learned lots of amazing cuisines and developed my cooking skills. I think my father’s restaurant gave me an early insight into kitchens and the buzz of a quality chef working with their staff. They gained their first appearance in the Michelin guide and I remember how excited the whole team were.
Back in London I explored lots of markets, shops and luckily through work I ate at some stunning restaurants. I’d always jot down my favourite dishes and try to recreate them from scratch.
Later in my life my career took a huge change when I went from corporate procurement to delivering running and triathlon training camps in Portugal and France!
We have now been delivering these camps for 10 years. Groups of customers (10 to 40 people) come and stay with us for the week. 5 days out of 7 we cook for them as well as coaching them. Cooking very quickly became a huge passion of ours. Feeding all these people who trained hard demolish a big, super tasty and nutritious meal at the end of the day is a huge buzz. We have 6 great cooks with great experience and ideas to share. Our customers often ask us for a cookbook but then they might not come back for more haha! They often say the food is half the reason they do!!
Our main food philosophy on the trips is high quality nutrition, lots of food groups, lots of colours (which generally means lots of vitamins) and above all great tasting food. We cook just about everything fresh and try to avoid greasy fats, highly refined and processed foods.
My main influences come from all over, especially with the experiences I have gained working with so many great cooks. If I had to name a few it would probably be Indian as my dad brought me up on curries, Italian as their pasta and risotto dishes are such great nutrition, French as we spend so much time there and also Portuguese more recently with their fantastic fresh fish, vibrant spicing and the quality and taste of their vegetables!
With the Covid Lock down I’ve had time to think how we could expand our business. I’ve always thought about doing more sports coaching, but why not the cooking too? I guess I’d like to make it more formal in terms of a restaurant or food truck (my boy’s wish lol). Maybe something to think about for the future! My friend Zoe does Home Chef in Bath and loves it. We had a chat the other day and one week later here I am with the equipment delivered and setting up the page, recipe plans and logistics.
I really hope you enjoy this new adventure.
Thanks for reading x