before & after

I got back from a big job earlier this week which I will tell you about when I have sorted the photos out (& once I finally face up to unpacking the kit!). In the meantime, here are some silly snaps of food I've been taking over the last 6 months in work...before food was cooked and after. Have I lost it?!

neven's new cookbook

I'm just back from piling on the pounds in Cavan - I've been busy testing the 130 recipes from Neven Maguire's next new cookbook. People always ask me what I mean by testing....it isn't just taste testing (although not fitting into my desk chair now makes me wonder!), I also make sure timings, sizes and dimensions, temperatures, quantities and descriptions are correct and make sense so that the recipe 'works' when people follow it.....I have the disasters, not you!

Anyhow, I have now officially cooked more in Neven's home kitchen than he has (although I'm not surprised as he's always in the restaurant kitchen).....this new book is a great collection of Neven's signature recipes that he cooks in the restaurant...although still easy enough for the home cook to make - that's why it's been given the catcy title, homechef. watch out for it at the end of this year.

me and my other husband (with a mock-up front cover)!

Thanks to Neven's wife Amelda for not batting an eyelid at me taking over her lovely home once again for weeks on end. Huge thanks also to Neven's chefs Vicky, Zara and Carina for helping me test and for all that shopping! and of course to Amelda's mum Eileen for all her help. not only in work but also with eating all that food and drinking all those cocktails!! cocktail o'clock...amelda, carina and eileen...

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'the book'

I've felt like I've been guarding the devil wears prada 'book' since last November. In this post I didn't explain properly what I've been up to all this time. I've just this second finished working on Rachel Allen's new cookbook. I've been busy developing and testing recipes with Rachel and her husband Issac. It's been a rollercoaster (Rachel even managed to deliver scarlett lily in the middle of it all!) but we've managed to submit about 240 recipes so it's a whopper - watch out for it later on in the year (when I'll be able to tell you more). In the meantime here's some of the action from the job (which hopefully doesn't give too much away!)...