I’m not a classically trained chef, in fact I have no formal training at all, but cooking and the kitchen were always at the heart of my home as a child. My Mother trained at Cordon Bleu in London in the early 1960s, at a time when Elizabeth David was having a huge influence on the food of post war England. This food ethos stayed with my Mother forever, and informed everything she did in the kitchen. Growing up the youngest of four children, it was a bit like growing up in a cooking school, we were always in the kitchen!
It’s no surprise that I ended up working with food, though getting there wasn’t as straightforward. I used to have a regular 9.00 – 5.00 office job, and at this job I would bring home cooked meals for lunch and dinner daily, always making time to sit away from my desk to enjoy them. Everyone at work noticed what I was eating, and almost every day someone would say, ‘I’ll pay you to make extra lunch for me!’ This inspired my business, The Meal Messenger.
I suppose with a surname like Messenger it was almost preordained that I would one day be making deliveries. The Meal Messenger cooks and delivers wholesome meals that taste like home cooking. It’s the kind of food your Mum would cook, if your Mum was Nigella Lawson! The menu is designed to be flexible, so you can use it when and where it suits you.
Over the next four weeks I’ll share some of the most popular items from our winter menu. First up is our lamb kofta with pea tabouleh. This recipe will often appear on the spring menu and even during the first few weeks of summer while peas are at their best, but you can just as easily use frozen peas, making this a great meal in the depths of winter when you tire of soups and stews, and crave some crunch.
Tasty Tuesday shoots are generously supported by The Establishment Studios.
