I’m crawling out, squint eyed, post travel slump.  San Francisco is being kept alive in me via vicarious means.  Skype allows me to sit and feast upon the chromatic American light eminating from a friends window. Emails keep me abreast of the daily goings on back in SF.  The city so good they named it once, because they didn’t need to bang on bout it and were quietly smug at its marvelousness. 

When I first arrived back in England and was reunited with my kitchen and its accoutrement’s. No longer having to deal with vacation rentals too thoughtless to supply a Vitamix or stick blender!  My shackles of the gadget void melted and I was suddenly given food preparation freedom.  My culinary skills could fly…soar to new heights of excellence. I’d rustle up a gourmet meal with two ingredients whilst keeping my kitchen clean and orderly as I gathered utensils.  Chopped.  Spliced. Diced.  I would dazzle my taste buds.  They’d stand cheek by jowl in reverential ovations!!!!  Thud.  Realty winded me, somewhat. 

Confronted with limitless potential I was forced to cave in and admit to myself the scary truth.  After two months of eating out, and heating water pans of to dehydrate green flakes of dried split pea soup purchased from a natural food store bulk bin,  I had lost my ‘kitchen head’.  When my eyes went skyward to pluck a gastronomic dish from an idea bloom….  Nada.  Nutin’.  Zilch.  All I could see was beet salad, kale salad, stir-fry, a plate of caramelising, sticky, sweet, roasted squash.  Soup is usually a feeding ground for innovation.  How about soup.? Dahl, was the extent of my repertoire.  Don’t get me wrong these dishes are simply delicious,  but The New York Times Food Section weren’t going to be breaking down my door to get to me anytime soon.

What to do?  I wanted to feel masterly.  But I wanted simple. Craved simple. I ate simple.

‘Had I lost my culinary mojo?!, I cried. It was then that I eyed a LED light at the end of the tunnel.  I saw I wasn’t in a tunnel at all! I’d just stepped into ‘stupid city’ for a moment.  The light bulb throbbed! Two months of travel and moving more times than fingers could count…..50 girl-hours in the library, researching recipe ideas from a far off shore……?!* amount of time sampling new and wondrous flavours to tease and indulge my hedonist palate.  I was burnt out!  Overloaded. I wanted simple.  Needed simple.  My butt needed me to run, not roulade!

The weight lifted from me by a choir of kindly (and strong) rock chick angels.  I was back.  The excitement of trying something new. The high expectations of plates of delight, sure to become the stuff of legends, written about and marvelled over for millenia to come (if the world doesn’t end this year that is) got me all excited.  I was as revved up as a 2-peak horsepower, 1200 watt, racing car red, super star kitchen blender.  Then, after devouring a warm-from-the-oven, almond cigar and supped from a cup of sultry, mellow chicory coffee, I took a breath and remembered I wasn’t Heston or Ferran Adrià quite yet, and that I just a curious cook. I have been a vegan cook for oodles of years, and I may be an untidy cook, but a cook non-the-less.  Now it was time.  Time to add to my blogged efforts and teach, support, encourage those who want (or need) to know how to ‘do’ plant-based, gluten free, healthy and flavoursome food, in the flesh…..’for reals’ as the young, London scallywags like to call it.

How? I may admit to being a teeny bit (!) worrisome over the thought of it, but I’m getting animated.  No. Not, a la Lara Croft, but in the form of real life cooking classes/workshops, and a video series on my blog.

First the classes.  I am planning courses in East Sussex and London (to begin with. I plan to run classes outside of the UK too, very soon). 

- The Ashdown Cookery School are hosting my first course (details below). 
- My new Meet UP group The Raw And The Cooked Vegan Community is just burgeoning   into the world and I’m planning a host of events and classes. Please sign up and come along.
- Also, I am offering private bespoke, 1-2-1, Vegan and Raw cooking classes.  If this is of interest please contact me for a chat , tell me what you need and I’ll do my best to cater to your requirements. Email: [email protected]

A video series is in the pipeline..well, in my head actually, but it’s coming.  How fun (nerve wracking).

click here for further details and a take a peek at what you could be making on the day