My Backstory
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I started my working life in the 1960’s in the newly empowered public relations and marketing arena, first with the North Western Gas Board in Manchester and then joining the team tasked with promoting the then unknown concept of “Yellow Pages”; the brief to make these classified directories part of the national way of life. Diverse clients such as L’Oreal hair products and Dulux paints with their “Brighter Britain” campaign followed.
During this time I developed my passion for food and cookery, setting up a small catering company working part time, late into the evenings and weekends. This led to multiple magazine articles and eventually two cookery books. By the late seventies something had to give and I decided to give up PR and go freelance as a full time food and cookery writer. Several books later, including a highly successful vegetarian cookbook, a collaboration with best-selling nutritionist Patrick Holford and a Catering Management Handbook with my brother, operations director of a London hotel group, opportunity knocked again. I was appointed cookery editor of Woman’s World magazine, this was followed by a series of appearances on the BBC’s flagship Pebble Mill at One show and I even started to act as an expert witness in court cases on culinary disputes! About this time, wine was starting to grow in popularity and thinking that the subject sat well with my culinary work I joined a three year wine course with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, achieving the Trust’s Diploma. Wine columns in Woman and Home and Woman’s World magazines as well as some regional newspapers led to extensive travel around the European wine scene, meeting growers, producers and other wine experts. I took over the annual book “Best Wine Buys in the High Street” and my book “The Wine Tasting Class”, was nominated for a Julia Child Award in the US. Although Master of Wine status seemed to be the next goal, the then EEC suddenly intervened. I was asked if I would re-train to become an international expert on olive oil and front the newly created Olive Oil Council in the UK. I pondered for a while and then decided to take up the new opportunity and commenced a rigorous training. My work with the Olive Oil Council led to a complete immersion in the olive oil world with even more travelling, now, not only in Europe but across the world. I was meeting and working with all kinds of people and characters, ranging from aging peasant farmers with degree educated grandchildren, to great landowners and members of the aristocracy looking to commercialize their olive groves. Add to that a whole army of university professors, machinery producers, buyers and local chefs, all of whom contributed a mass of in-depth information. Over the years I have been asked to speak at international conferences both in and outside the producing countries, at distinguished venues such as The British Helenic Chamber of Commerce, the Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir au Quartre Seasons, Prue Leith’s School of Cookery and the Melbourne Catering Collage and to run numerous sponsored master classes. By the start of the twenty first century my career had moved more towards education and consultancy (Link here to earlier pages) with the introduction of the Savantes three day olive oil tasting and appreciation courses first in Australia and then in the UK and other parts of Europe and my own one day courses in London (Link to classes section). |
Visit to Imperia for olive oil Oleum in early 2000’s
Wine and Spirit Education Trust Dioplma 1988
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