About me -May I suggest you start by reading my blog to Sarah

My name is Aggie Redpath, I am a trained Cordon Bleu cook, and have worked in most aspects of the catering business, including two seasons as a chalet girl, teaching cookery to ex pat wives in Hong Kong and extensive freelance work, including lunch for 50 on an open top bus for Derby Day!

 

However, as a wife and mother I reap most pleasure from seasonal cooking for my family and the challenges that brings. Each month brings new culinary delights, and spring is a time to welcome the new season's produce and enhance dishes with the addition of autumn and winter preserves and chutneys. To me, family cooking and nurturing one’s family go hand in hand.  We, as a family  all eat puddings every day, mainly simple familiar ones, that put a smile on everyone’s face.

 

My concern is that family cooking is dying a death, through lack of  basic teaching. Gone are the days when a child learnt to cook by her mothers side, now we live in a world of celebrity culture where  chefs seek their fame and fortune with displays of their  culinary expertise. Fine, for the initiated, but for the layman, it is near impossible to follow the speed and understand the techniques they are using.  These recipes often require ingredients that are too expensive or difficult to source, so we are left floundering, desperately wanting to feed our families healthy food but not really knowing where to start…….So Aggie to the rescue!

 

 

Through my blog to my best friend Sarah, who has always found cooking a complete chore, I am teaching her and others like her, to enjoy eating and cooking. We are starting at the VERY BEGINNING, by sorting out cupboards,  cookery equipment, and identifying fruits and vegetables and how to prepare them. I completely understand the time constraints put on modern families and how they feel it is too much of a daunting task to start cooking, so I am metaphorically holding their  hand and encouraging them  to believe in their own ability to cater for their  family. There are many like Sarah,  who are too frightened to say, help, I don’t know what to do, where do I start? We are walking down this exciting road of learning  to shop and cook well together,  which will be rewarded with great confidence and enjoyment in a new found skill. To make the cookery demonstrations easy to understand I am showing video clips of each stage of the process, allowing the individual time to replay the clips as desired. We will be using each stage as a building block to create seasonal recipes which are healthy and fit into each person’s way of life.

 

Come and join me in my beautiful garden where I am creating  a  herb garden so that I can enjoy copious amounts  of lush fresh herbs, and  edible flowers to enhance my cooking,   peep into my  vegetable garden that includes salad crops, vegetables and soft fruits, so that you can be inspired to 'have a go' yourself, after all, who can resist a large plateful of home grown new potatoes, slathered in butter and chopped mint, agreed?!

 

With best wishes,

 

Aggie