I believe that most of us cook and create by being given nuggets of inspiration. We take recipes and cook from them, then we cook them again, and tweak them and add things, and then we cook them again. It was this idea of passing on favourite dishes to the next generation that inspired my first book, Recipes from my Mother for my Daughter.

This book wouldn’t have come about without an email I wrote to my family and friends who are mothers. I asked them what they liked to cook and eat: what their fallbacks are, their comfort dishes, the meals they make for their families when time is short. I have tweaked, rewritten, added and played around with their ideas, and added my own family’s staples, but without their willingness to share their treasured favourites, there would be no book.

In a world that is ever changing and not always a smooth ride, food is a thing that binds us. So here are those treasures, from mother to mother, with all my love and gratitude…

Lisa x