About

Gosh when it comes to writing about myself it’s really quite a challenge. 

I am an Author,  Food photographer, Food Journalist and Broadcaster and I have one of the UK's top food blogs. It is now in it's third year - Goddess On a Budget

I trained as a chef when I left school and worked in Paris and in a bakery in the south of France.  I returned home to the UK and did a degree, all the while working as a chef to pay the bills.

When I finished my degree I almost accidentally fell into working for a recruitment agency and somehow, ever the entrepreneur I started my own. I sold my recruitment agency to my main competitors age 27.  They were a large company. I intended to stay a month.  I stayed and ended up as the Group Sales and Marketing Director, bringing the company up to date with many things I won't bore you with here.   Three children later and priorities change.  

I've always loved food.  Everything about food.  Cooking, sourcing, the history, the cultural aspects.  

I followed my heart and abandoned my corporate life to write a recipe book in May 2010.  I've not looked back since. 

I now work for the BBC and as a freelance food journalist. I also develop recipes and do the food photography and blogs for several high profile clients. 

When it comes to writing anything else about myself it’s really quite a challenge.  I suppose it is better to ask who am to someone else?

To my husband I am a wife.  I imagine he would tell you that I am a half Italian red headed handful of a wife, and that I cook.  He would probably tell you that I am kind hearted, and determined. 

To my children I am all that is love. I am the hug when things go wrong, the shriek of joy when they go right.  I am person who makes then tidy their rooms, eat their greens and I take them everywhere. I always tell then the truth about life.  They will tell you that I would do anything for them and that I love to dance when no one is looking, sing where no one can hear oh and  that I love art galleries. Daddy is stricter I have just been told!

To my mother and father I am the eldest daughter.  It was me who argued to stay out later, whilst my brother and sister enjoyed the auto privileges with out the fight! Such is the role of the eldest in the family.  I was never one to do as I am told.  I am afraid I find things out the hard way.   To my brother and sister I am the oldest.  To my sister I am a built in friend.  Always there.

For my friends I am someone who will drop everything if asked.  I am loyal.

To my old boss I would always exceed what I had agreed to achieve and in his words I don’t suffer fools .. and there are many times he would ask me to bite my tongue.  I suppose I am now more more forgiving of stupidity than I once was. 

I am someone who cares deeply about the world around us.  It matters to me where my food comes from and how my decisions affect others and I love that I have the opportunity to share information.

The words that have most affected my life were carved into a stone memorial that used to walk past every day -  on it was inscribed the following

"I shall pass through this world but once.

Any good, therefore, that I can show to any human being,

let me do it now.

Let me not defer nor neglect it,

for I shall not pass this way again."

Stephen Grellet

These are most influential words I have every read and I live everyday with this in mind.