The Early Years: From Lisbon to London!
I have been very fortunate to have lived in many different countries in Europe during my childhood and beyond. My father is Swedish and my mother is Maltese but I was born in Lisbon, Portugal where I spent the first year of my life. My family then moved to Stockholm and then Athens, the city where I spent most of my childhood. At 17 I moved to Malta where I lived until a sense of adventure took me off to London at the age of 24 – the intention was to go for 6 months but I’m still in the UK 18 years later!
From Enthusiast to Pro: My Love of Food and Baking
I have always been obsessed with food, cooking and baking. Even as a late teenager, I was baking and catering for events from my home in Malta. I think some of this passion comes from my exposure to different food cultures over the years, not only from the countries I lived in but also from my travels to other corners of the world. I have such fond memories of my mother’s home cooked food, eating in tavernas on the beach in Greece, the time spent at my Aunt’s tearooms in Malta, exploring the exciting variety of food that cities like London offer, and entertaining at home for my friends. Food, cooking and baking has always been incredibly exciting to me.
So, after working in property marketing in London I decided to make my passion for food and baking into a career. It was the world of pâtisserie that really appealed to me. I had always enjoyed baking cakes for my friends and family, and I knew there was so much more to the cake and dessert world.
I undertook the intensive 6-month pâtisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu in London, where I was trained by amazing chefs in classic patisserie techniques.
It was following this course that I started my home baking business from my flat in London. Although I made many different cakes and desserts during his time, the business was predominantly novelty cakes.
During this time in London, as well as running my home baking business, I also had the invaluable experience of working as a pastry chef in different kitchens in hotels (including The Savoy), restaurants and catering companies.
You never know what lunch will lead to!
Rob and I met at a lunch we both happened to be invited to in London. I was invited by my friend who is married to one of Rob’s best friends. We both share a love of all things food, cooking and eating. We were both enthusiastic about starting a food business and this led to us setting up Sweet Elements Pâtisserie in Chester, England.
We made many thousands of cakes and desserts in hundreds of different varieties, all from scratch and all to the same exacting standards. There were many highs and many lows during our time running the pâtisserie. We certainly got a lot of things right, but we also got a lot of things wrong. It was an unbelievable challenge and an extraordinary experience.
Despite the difficulties, it is directly because of this experience that I have the knowledge I now have. There is no course I could have done that could substitute the knowledge I gained from those 3 years. During this time, I pushed myself to try new recipes and techniques, and I was always learning from courses, online materials and the vast amount of knowledge shared on social media. I had no one to ask and if I wanted to find something out, or if something went wrong, I had to figure it out for myself.
How Neve’s arrival inspired our ethos on food
Following the birth of our daughter Neve, we closed the pâtisserie. Ultimately, the unsociable hours and challenges that went hand in hand with running Sweet Elements made running it incompatible with bringing up Neve in the way that we wanted to.
It was when Neve arrived that Rob and I started to give more consideration to where our food was coming from. We have always appreciated good quality ingredients, not only for cooking at home but it was a central part of our pâtisserie business. Having the pâtisserie was also very influential on the evolution of our ethos on food; for example, we started out using artificial colours in some of our products but then adopted a no artificial colour policy for everything we made. With Neve’s arrival we became even more focussed on where our ingredients come from and how they have been produced. We learned more about many of the harmful practices that have become the accepted normality of so much of modern food production. We wanted to make sure that Neve’s exposure to these harmful practices was limited as much as it can be.
In my view there is not enough focus on the use of quality ingredients in the cake and dessert world; there is still widespread reliance on artificial colours and flavours as well as ingredients that have been produced using practices that are damaging to the environment and our health. When it comes to baking, I use organic or pesticide free ingredients, flour that has been grown regeneratively, grass fed dairy, organic free range eggs and I avoid any ultra processed foods.
So, my ethos is built on using natural good quality ingredients and applying sound techniques to deliver cakes with real flavour. For me, food is about quality and not quantity. This approach means that a food enthusiast like me can try to lead a health conscious lifestyle and also enjoy a little indulgence from time to time! After all what is life about?!