MY COOKBOOK

The journey of my Kitchen Confidence Cookbook begins

It took a year or so, starting with a passing remark by my lovely daughter Jessie about me gathering together a few recipes for her to take to university with her. It evolved into an actual book and lots of people wanted to know more. Many hours of experimenting, testing recipes, photographing later – I had a draft of a book.

Jessie and her friends read it, tried out some of the recipes and gave their seal of approval. So did some of my Kitchen Confidence Cookery School customers and they gave it the thumbs up too. So I hit “send” and off the draft went to the publishers. That was followed by a few weeks of discussions with them, then the rather nail-biting moment when I gave them the go-ahead to print.

And eventually the email came to say it was ready and my boxes of books were to be delivered – while I was away eating magnificent food in Sicily. So I had to wait a couple more weeks before I could open the box of books and see and touch this labour of love for myself.

Boxes of Kitchen Confidence Cookbooks arrive

What an exciting moment that was – a whole box of Kitchen Confidence cookbooks, written by me!! I’ve always needed a deadline and guess what – the boxes arrived the day before Jessie packed her bags and headed off to further her education.

I’m so grateful to everyone who helped my get here – I’ve given them a mention in the book and they know who they are. But I have to single out the amazing Greg Swenson, of Recipes4Rebels who so patiently designed the book, guided me through the process and was infinitely patient with my “there are no stupid questions” approach to the project. I also have to thank Harry Stone for his beautiful illustrations that really help bring the recipes to life. Oh, and Jessie for getting me started and keeping me on track when I was distracted.