Lydia first learned to cook when she went to university. After buying a wok from a Chinese supermarket, she learned to make stir-fries and then tomato sauces. She has collected many cookery books over the years and now tries to be very selective in which books she buys.
Lydia trained as a biochemist originally and eventually became so interested in food that she undertook formal qualifications in Professional Cookery, taking both chef qualifications in Kitchen and Larder and in Patisserie and Confectionery. She worked professionally as a chef for approximately ten years.
Recently she has taken a sit-down job and now enjoys using her cooking skills for herself and for friends. She has been a Leite’s Culinaria Recipe Tester since 2013 and has kept the recipes she has tested during that time with all her comments. Over the years it has required her to keep seeking out and trying new recipes, which she may not have found on her own. The process also forces her to find other new dishes to use up any leftover ingredients. She finds the process quite meditative and often loses herself in a single recipe for an hour or two. She wonders if sometime she will hand her curated recipes to someone and say there you go, that was my life in food.
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