About

Originally I wanted to call this blog ‘Something from Nothing’ after a colleague’s flattering phrase for describing my cooking style. We worked at a care home with a very low food budget and also, we never knew what the other cooks would use during their shifts, so we often literally ended up with nothing. A similar situation I faced at home where university debt and crap pay left me with limited food choice (which at its ultimate low included market leftovers and supermarket or restaurant bins). But somehow I was never without good food, maybe also because I could draw on a varied spice rack.
Nowadays, I’ve moved a bit more ‘upmarket’ – which means I can enter the supermarkets through the front door to buy ‘staples’ and scavenge in their ‘reduced to clear’ pile. I can also buy fresh fruit and veg at outdoor markets and everything else at Indian, Chinese and Turkish wholesale places. And I can buy the occasional treat (liquorice & supermalt – yum)! Still, I maintain the same cooking style – making food with whatever I can get my hands on and try to make it nicer than the food that most people buy in supermarkets or delis (and without turning into a total food fetishist)! So it’s really ‘something from anything’ rather than ‘something from nothing’.
The blog will also feature food from different (volunteer) work places, so the recipes will not always be cheap and basic. But I thought I’d include a mixture of things for inspiration!

In any case, this blog is dedicated (not so much in the teaching sense as in the respect-paying sense) to the people who have taught me to improvise and to everybody who has to use what they find or are provided with by other people. As long as you’ve got enough of anything, it’s not about making do, but making better food!

PS A brief warning: I hardly ever use measured amounts of ingredients (I don’t even have a proper scale). I will try to give estimates wherever possible.