Born in Bombay a vibrant city full of life, colours, music, films, culture and cuisines, it was the perfect foundation to introduce my passion for good food in Scotland.

From a very early age I was surrounded by family and friends who excelled in home cooking. My inspiration for food comes mainly from my mother who went on to become the best cook in the family. I am also very passionate about social justice and through my investigative research and journalism highlight issues that are important to society’s well-being both locally and globally.

Guest Lecturer/Dissertation Supervisor at Edinburgh University for MSc in Environmental Sustainability (Postgraduate) and Planetary Health (Undergraduate).

With a passion for a social justice and localised food systems I am excited to have come on board the You Can Cook team and join Bosco’s vision for a healthy Scotland.

My background is in photojournalism and filmmaking, beginning at 17 when I moved to Peru to live and work in a children’s home. Whilst there I began photographing life around me and it was there that I realised the potential for combining my interest in politics and sociology with my love for storytelling. Since then I have worked to document the stories of both international NGOs and local grassroots organisations across several continents. I have had the privilege to live and work in communities in Ghana, Palestine, Colombia and more recently in refugee camps in Serbia and Greece - learning and growing deeply from a diversity of human interactions and connections in some of the most marginalised communities in the world.

Several years ago I made the less familiar decision to put my roots back down in Scotland in order to work on stories closer to home. Since then, I have had the joy of documenting the wonderful fruits of Bosco’s labour, in the form of community cookery classes and gardening sessions in schools and centres across the Scottish Borders.

Bringing over 18 years of experience of business management to “You Can Cook”, I have previously owned 2 restaurants as well as owning a successful car dealership Group, Lawrence of Kemnay in Aberdeenshire.

Currently I am on the board of Brown Brothers, Peebles where I help to manage and run their Honda, Renault and Dacia dealerships. A lover of fine food, travel and trying to keep up with 4 kids, a task that sadly doesn’t burn off as many calories as I eat!

My adventures with food and travel started over 20 years ago when I began to have a yearning to see the world. Therefore, as soon as I was able, I started travelling after university. I promptly found a job as a chalet cook in the French alps and that’s where my adventure with food really began. Since then I have had the opportunity to work as a chef and continue to travel across the globe, savouring different cuisines and experiencing different cultures and ways of life.

My passion is evolving now after feeling a deepening love for nature and I am now studying herbalism and weaving this into my cooking. I love colourful, fresh, vibrant flavors and love to share my recipes and cooking skills with anyone who is keen to learn

I spend the majority of my time thinking about food. Whether I’m cooking for family or friends, baking bread or planning menus at work. Growing up in a single parent family in rural Wales, my interest in food began watching my mum always in the kitchen, surrounded by countless smells, colours and ingredients. Cooking what seemed like a mountain of all kinds of vegetarian food, or at least enough to fill the back of the car, to sell to people working in local industrial estates.

My interest in food, developed over time into an interest in nutrition and how food affects the body. This led to a 4-year degree course at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, where I graduated with a BSc (hons) in Nutrition in 2012. Since then, I’ve spent a number of years developing content for my own nutrition website and working with clients on diet plans and nutritional analysis. Alongside this over the last 10 years, I’ve enjoyed working in community development, always with a focus on food and nutrition. From volunteering with various charities, planning and facilitating cooking sessions in a number of communities across the city, to working as part of the food team at a community health charity in the north of Edinburgh.

While working in north Edinburgh, I was part of a variety of projects. Such as planning and facilitating regular cooking and nutrition sessions, facilitating a local food network and the development of a local food strategy.

"After studying textiles at university and having a successful career in the local knitwear industry in the Scottish Borders, I decided to retrain as a Home Economics teacher in 2023 in the search of something more fulfilling which could benefit my local community. I have found this career change to be so rewarding and love teaching my pupils important practical skills in both cooking and sewing to set them up for life and weave in my passion for sustainable living.

When I'm not at school, I am usually out exploring the Borders countryside with my golden retriever Indie or in my kitchen making hearty home cooked meals, I love spending time at the weekend batch cooking for the working week and more recently have got into making sourdough which I am having fun experimenting with. I also enjoy wild swimming, crochet and drawing in my spare time to relax!"