My love of food stems from an early age. I loved eating things on my own and discovering how food works – the different ways in which you can eat a Jaffa Cake, how a banana naturally divides lengthways into three segments or the fact that a cucumber’s seeds taste different from the rest of it. I thought about how food is put together and how taste and texture works.
As I grew older, that pleasure was realised through cooking for friends and then customers at Moro, the restaurant I run with my husband, Sam. I never made the conscious decision to work in a restaurant – I fell into it. I studied languages at university, but I have always cooked for people and enjoyed it. I had a bit of a reputation for cooking, but it wasn’t until I fell into a job that I realised it was exactly what I should be doing – it felt natural and right.
The happiest moment of my life was when I met Sam. I was cooking at The Eagle pub in Farringdon and he came to work as a cook. He’d been at the River Café, as I had, and I’d heard about him because we have the same surname. It’s corny, but he made me very happy. I really wanted to find someone like-minded, someone who enjoys food. I couldn’t imagine going out with someone who wasn’t as passionate about food as I am. When Sam came along, it was without question my happiest moment. We set up Moro two or three years later.