About me.

I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while and now I’ve decided to bite the bullet and have a go.

I’ve always loved the romance that comes with food. How a simple plate of food cooked well can lift a person eating it. I love cooking for others then seeing them speak passionately about the food I’ve cooked. Maybe a Sunday roast, a curry, a fry up. To me it doesn’t matter and never will do.

Having become interested in food in the mid 90’s whilst watching Jamie Oliver in his early days on his now famous Naked Chef series I became hooked instantly. I have to be honest, it first caught my eye due to the music in the programme as I was heavily into the indie scene that was rising. Then I got it. I could see how his friends and family were all sat around celebrating his food.

Then….I discovered Rick Stein. I was hooked. Filming this amazing tv series from places I was visiting yearly with my family down in Cornwall. The way Rick presented drew me in, a family man working hard cooking these amazing fish dishes. I’ve watched Fruits of the Sea series so many times now I dare not think about it. So, my love for food comes from these guys.

Over the years I’ve collected many cook books. Over the past few years I’ve used cooking and these books have helped me with the everyday pressures of providing for a young family, daily struggles of the work place, life in general and recently the pandemic. It’s ok not to be ok!

Due to my passion and love for cooking after cooking at a friends BBQ one Saturday back at in 2008 and I was given the random chance to help out in a local pub. The bar manager whom is the brother of who’s BBQ is was told the owner of the pub about my cooking. The following day we visited the pub and the owner politely asked me if I fancied it ! Well, I already had a career so to take on a another position was a challenge. The business I was working for was facing administration so the kitchen position would be a natural release from the day to day worries. So I took a few hours at The Lord Nelson in Ansley (Nuneaton). As I was working less than 16 hours helping out in the kitchen I qualified for a free government back NVQ scheme which I jumped at. The gentleman assigned to teaching me was called Gaurav Panday….a name I will be forever grateful to! Gaurav whilst teaching others also had his own Indian restaurant in Derby. Others under his wing took the natural route and learnt about traditional British / French cooking as that was the normal route into UK kitchens. I seen an opportunity to learn about Indian food under his teachings. I did my whole NVQ in professional cheffing in Indian food. Whilst I could only work at The Lord Nelson for 14 months as my position changed and had to work in Leeds those 14 months were extremely valuable to me and I learnt a lot about kitchen life. Gaurav….I salute you!!!

I’m just a guy in his late 40’s hoping to share my love for cooking. I hope to be listing out the books I’ve cooked from to help anyone wanting to get into cooking more. Thank you for reading my page.

The food is a million miles away from the career I started aged 17 in 1994.

I work in the automotive wholesale sector selling to motor factors and distributors all over the UK and Ireland plus exporting to 58 countries worldwide.

In recent years my position has taken me to China & Hong Kong twice, Denmark, Belgium and Germany a number of times.

I use my cooking as a form of escapism. It allows me to shut off and my focus in the kitchen is a million miles away from sourcing products, negotiating with suppliers all over the world, purchasing the finished product then feeding our sales force with enough passion about the product to sell it successfully.

Having started with The Tool Connection in 2011 to create and build a brand of consumables I’ve enjoyed my time building a brand from nothing to taking the brand to be the UK’s leading force in specialist automotive consumables.

In June I decided to take upon a new challenge. After almost 10 years I decided to return to where this journey started in 1994.

The role of Group New Product manger was offered to myself utilising my experience within the market place to develop already mature ranges taking them to another level. 

This role splits my time between Nuneaton & Leeds to cover Quest Consumables, Van-line, Harvie Tyre Products, Clampco & Rema Automotive.

This is a very exciting much needed challenge and opportunity.

Whilst pushing myself to better myself in my career I will be pushing ahead with the food projects. I aim to keep experimenting with food flavours, learning new technics, combinations, regional food as I aim to get deeper into Indian / Asian food plus cultures.

Let’s see where the journey takes me…..