I grew up surrounded by fantastic food. My mother was a wonderful, enthusiastic, adventurous and experimental cook and had me cooking comparatively sophisticated things by the time I was 7 years old. I am passionate about good wine and food and have spent most of my working life in the hotel and restaurant industries. i enjoy cooking. I write about cooking and have a collection of over 3,000 cookery books, most of them inherited from my mother who should have written about cooking but never did.

Where to start? I love Indian food, Chinese food, Arab food, French.......... Let's just say I love food and be done with it. I will try almost anything once! I used to weigh nearly 300 lbs so one could hardly say I ate healthily. However, I now weigh under 180 lbs and feel great. I eat what I like (which is almost everything) but smaller portions! And I drink what I like too. But now, I do most things in moderation.