A good question! A quirky English bloke with a ridiculously big passion for good clean food. That would be the best description I can think of! I have been a home cook for years, and have always focused on finding the best local ingredients possible.

Maybe it was the birth of my first child, or perhaps due to some family medical issues the past year, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on eating real food (healthy real food), that is as fresh and as seasonal as it can be. Originally this started as a small set of recipes for some relatives that enjoyed having dinner with us, but it has turned into something much larger.

I grew up in a small village in England, and moved to the Pacific Northwest over 5 years ago. For as long as I can remember my parents served up good wholesome food, from ingredients that were super-fresh, and unprocessed. We would get milk delivered to the door each day in England, by a milkman.. the milk was never homogenized, and from local cows. They supplied our village with milk, cheese and eggs. Vegetables came from a local farm shop, and meats came from a local butcher. My parents were big into eating properly, we never really had candy (some really good chocolate desserts though!) and certainly never had soda (we always laughed when our hyperactive cousins came over, drinking gallons of the stuff).

This really helped my brother and I to get a good understanding of what real food is, and how to eat.

One of my earliest memories of food was trotting off to the local farm shop with Dearie (the affectionate term everyone uses for my mother, but can never remember why) and helping her pick out vegetables for the week. I am pretty certain I had no idea what I was grabbing, or how it would be cooked, but I remember it being a lot of fun picking up odd fruit and veg, and trying to convince Dearie that we should buy it!

For me, the Pacific Northwest is a fabulous place to cook. Amazing seafood can so easily be paired with incredibly fresh and seasonal veggies and fruit. The abundance of local farmers markets also gives the cook a great variety of produce, and also knowledge from local farmers.

Finally, I would like to thank Danika (my wife) for helping me find time during our busy schedules (and looking after our new son Drake) to create this cookbook. There is no way I could have done this without her!