Yes, I'm Auntie Em!

I’ve always cooked the way I live… a bit curious, a bit instinctive and always pulling ideas from the people around me. Over the years I’ve mixed the cosy, home-taught tricks I picked up from friends of all kinds of backgrounds with the classical training I started with. I think that blend is what gives my food its character. Familiar, but with a little lift.

My Story

I started training back in 2001 at Aylesbury College, where I met Jaxon. Funny how we’re still working together more than twenty years on!

After that, I realised the late nights and endless shifts in restaurant kitchens weren’t quite for me, so I took a sharp turn into advertising. Sixteen years at a global news publisher later, I found myself working closely with Belle, long before either of us knew we’d be teaming up again in a totally different way.

Then 2020 happened, and like a lot of people I had time to think. Redundancy can be unsettling, but it nudged me back toward the thing I’d been dancing around for years. Food. Proper food. My food.

Becoming an auntie gave the business its name. I’d barely settled on the idea when my three-year-old nephew announced the colour should be teal or blue. Teal. Completely random. Completely perfect. I stuck with it, and it stuck with me.

A couple of years on, in 2023, I went back to studying because I wanted to understand why I was still so obsessed with this world. I joined UWL for a Future Foods and Culinary Management degree and, honestly, loved every minute. I finished with first class honours in 2025, which still feels a bit surreal.

Outside the kitchen, I care a lot about food insecurity and the gaps people fall through. So I got involved in community work and, in 2024, set up Auntie’s Cookery Academy. It’s all about helping vulnerable young people learn the skills and confidence to cook, budget and feed themselves well.

That same year, Belle officially joined me, taking on marketing and operations and adding some much-needed focus while I kept stirring pots and dreaming up menus. Through 2025, we’ve pushed hard, cooked for bigger crowds, travelled a bit more and said yes to every opportunity that felt like us.

And now here we are, building something that still feels grounded in home cooking, but with its own little spark. If anything, I think that’s the point of Auntie Em’s. Real food. Real flavour. Real people.