My love of food and cooking started at home and lucky for me Mum just let me play and create, some with great results and some not so great!
At 15 I started holiday work at a little seaside bakery, where homemade cooking was what it was all about. I then went on to Waikato to study Professional cookery and work in Hamilton’s finest restaurant at the time, (PS this is when I cooked for the Queen on her Royal tour). Next I was presented with an amazing opportunity to travel to Europe as a personal chef and nanny, over the course of a year I visited some incredible places, unbelievable restaurants and enjoyed some priceless experiences.
Keen to get home and get cooking I jumped in with two feet and brought my first restaurant at the age of 22, with the amazing support of my family and home town I successfully created a great little local and then extended to cater for weddings and functions. After 3 ½ years it was time to move onto bigger things so off to Auckland I went.
That’s where the Petite Gourmet Dessert and Cake Shop journey began, and where I learnt to be patient and precise and grow my love of creating beautiful things. It was during this time that I started with NZ House & Garden magazine, creating recipes and learning the art of food styling, this lovely relationship continued for 14 years.
Things got more exciting as my food styling career progressed to encompass advertising, packaging & TV commercials.
Also alongside of this I sold the Dessert & cake shop and brought a Handmade Pasta and Gourmet Deli, trying my hand at all things foodie!
Next came the big step of Food Editor for the NZ Woman’s Weekly I role which I enjoyed immensely, knowing that your recipes are being cooked around the country is hugely gratifying.
After two years in the role I switched to Gourmet food magazine work again, working on such titles as Food, Taste, and Nadia and increased my packaging and advertising capacity, so now every day is different – just the way I like it !
