About Angela

Food writer, food consultant, broadcaster, and former chef to the rich and famous including Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angela Gray spent eight years globe trotting with her chef’s kit back in the 80s. She returned home to Wales and settled in Cardiff.

There she pursued a slightly different career in the media world. A degree in Food and Consumer Science together with her extensive knowledge of food formed the basis of what has become an amazing culinary adventure. Angela’s passion for food led to her presenting two cookery series for BBC Wales namely, Hot Stuff and More Hot Stuff, which took the viewing audience on a whistle stop cooks’ tour of Wales. A book followed named after the series, containing all the recipes and anecdotes from the programmes.

She also presented a series, Overnight Success, looking at the pros and cons of the hospitality business. Angela has been a live guest on UKTV Food Live, Flavours of Britain, UKTV Food Heroes with Gary Rhodes and Market Kitchen’s Great Adventure. For two years she presented a radio series on BBC Wales entitled My Life On A Plate, grilling guests like Kim Howells MP, Lowri Turner, Antonio Carluccio, Monty Don, Stephen Bull and John Humphries about what their life and heir favourite menu. Angela penned a second book The Welsh Cheese Book (Gomer Press) which is a celebration of the wonderful cheeses now available from Wales. This popular little book was recently updated and a second edition printed.

Angela also loves cooking in front of a live audience, and is a regular at many festivals around the UK. For the past 11 years she has organized the masterclasses at the Abergavenny food festival working with top chefs from all over the UK.

In summer 2009 Angela organized and managed the food elements for Wales At The Smithsonian Folklife Festival. 1.2 million visitors came to the Washington Mall where 130 participants from Wales shared a plethora of Welsh cultural elements from slate splitting to food.

The next chapter brings her back to Llanerch Vineyard, and in her words “It’s going to be fabulous!”. She is very excited about welcoming people into her world, she describes her venture here as a culmination of an exciting 30 year career. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge, skills and anecdotes, and promoting the art of cooking as a daily ritual, which she insists is achievable in 20 minutes!

More recently, Angela has been choosing finalists for culinary competitions on BBC1's The One Show. We have had two episodes filmed at the Vineyard, where the finalists have fought it out to win the title of the Best Mince Pie and Best Trifle! Angela has been joined on the judging panel by the Food Critic Jay Raynor and we look forward to welcoming him and the crew back for another competition in the New Year.

About Geraldine Griffith

Geraldine's passion for food started at an early age in her mother’s kitchen. She has fond memories of special recipes that she treasures to this day which were handed down from her grandfather who came to Wales in the late 1800’s from Barbados.

At school she was encouraged by her domestic science teacher to go on to study at the College of Food Technology. One of her lecturers was so impressed with her skills that he employed her. After gaining a few years experience in the trade Geraldine left Wales and emigrated to Barbados.

At the age of 28 she took up the post of Food & Beverage Manager at the then renowned Ocean View Hotel, an establishment with an excellent reputation in authentic Bajan cuisine. It was there that she discovered a whole new world full of new and exciting ingredients. Caribbean authentic cuisine has since become her trademark.

On returning to Wales Geraldine utilised her new skills in various different avenues:

Adult classes, demonstrations, Buffets for special events. In 2004 she was featured in the ITV programme, a Taste of Wales. In 2009 she was part of Angela Gray’s team, Wales at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has recently been approached by BBC to take part in a new programme entitled My Story for the children’s channel CBeebies.

Her courses aim to bring a little sunshine and soul into your kitchen and is an introduction to some of the traditional foods and cooking styles of the Caribbean.

About Claudine Boulstridge

Angela is very pleased to welcome Claudine to the teaching team at the Cookery School. Claudine has an Anglo-French background and trained as a professional chef at the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. Thereafter, she developed a successful career teaching and demonstrating a wide range of culinary styles and techniques at many cookery schools: LeithsSchool of Food and Wine, Divertimenti Cookery School and The Cookery School in Little PortlandStreet. Claudine also worked as a freelance chef for an exclusive London design company andprovided catering for private clients.

Claudine has now settled in Wales, with her husband and young family, where she continues to teach at several cookery schools including The Bertinet Kitchen in Bath and she regularly returns to teach in London. Claudine has for some time worked closely with a well known celebrity chef, creating and testing recipes for his cookery books and other media publications. She also creates recipes for a popular condiments brand, and works on a freelance basis for a foodconsultancy company. She is currently in the process of writing her own cookery book.

About Jackie Palit

Connected by family to both Flintshire and Pembrokeshire, Jackie actually trained and qualified as a nurse in Liverpool. It was there that she met and married Arabinda Palit. During a year's placement in Nigeria, Jackie began to develop skills in cooking Bengali food from friends and their families. Since 1973 Jackie and Arabinda have lived in Narbeth with their two daughters. Every year, however, there are lengthy visits to Kolkata which is where Jackie has learnt to create stunning regional Indian cuisine from relatives who trace their origins to East Bengal and are experts on Behgali food.

Jackie is a very versatile cook and has an excellant reputation for her East-West Cuisine catering business. Recently Jackie has retired from the Narbeth Food Festival Committee of which she was a founder member. Much of the Festival's success can be attributed to her input and their loss is certainly the Cookery School's gain.

Jackie has worked closely with Pembrokeshire College where she has done lecturing, teaching and demonstrating.

Jackie's courses will include a mixture of typical Bengali dishes using recipes from family and friends from Kolkata with an emphasis on fish and vegetarian ingredients.

Her course on April 28th, will include Chola Dahl with Coconut and Ginger, Cauliflower, Potato and Peas, Fish With Mustard, Onion Rice, Vegetable Samosas and Cocktail Fish Fry wtih Mint and Coriander Chutney.

Her course on April 29th will include Masoor Dahl and Coriander, Cabbage with Shrimps, Chicken Malai, Pea Pilau, Sweet Potato and Onion Pakoras, Alu Dom and Luchi Bread.

About Sharon Clifford

Sharon is very much local to Llanerch vineyard. Originally she trained as a Human Resources officer, however, with a love of food and an even bigger love of chocolate it was only a matter of time before a career change was called for.

Sharon initially trained with Slattery Patissier and Chocolatier and then completed a short course at William Curley’s, the award winning Patissier and Chocolatier. She then set up her business, Cocoa Magic specializing in unusual chocolates with a fun twist. Clients include a famous shoe designer at Fortnum & Mason.

Sharon has worked closely with St Fagans: national history museum, providing teaching and chocolate demonstrations for all ages and has a regular market stall at the famous Riverside Market in Cardiff.

Come and indulge your senses on one of Sharon's chocolate courses where you will learn all about chocolate from the history to tasting it, making truffles, tempering, decorating, moulding and mastering the art of a perfect brownie.

About Julie Brooks

Julie Brooks is the founder of Food 4 The Journey Nutritional Therapy and believes that in addition to a healthy lifestyle, if we are to live well, then we must eat well.

Julie qualified 20 years ago initially in the Hotel & Catering industry but was particularly drawn to the Food & Beverage. Since 1994 when she set up Food 4 The Journey as a catering company, which has provided private catering for companies and organisations, weddings, business lunches and dinners, she has sought to find the best local produce, for flavour and freshness, choosing organic wherever possible. She has also worked for private clubs managing their catering facilities and restaurants. She is passionate about food done well and has vast experience in personalised menu planning and food preparation, from both catering and nutrition perspectives. Taking this passion one stage further, out of interest and in having her own health issues to overcome, she then trained as a Nutritional Therapist and in December 2009 Food 4 The Journey Nutritional Therapy was born. She graduated from Premier Training International in Wiltshire. Her continued education is with The Institute of Functional Medicine – which looks at underlying causes and deals with primary prevention rather than the treatment of symptoms and a whole person centred approach.

In addition she delivers courses to groups in her local community to help people come to terms with their weight related problems and overcome them, but also to educate people in how to eat well, life well and live free from the restrictions that a poor diet brings - especially in the areas of nutrition, cooking, diet and lifestyle. She firmly believes in taking responsibility for ones own health and prrevention is so far greater than cure and at a tiny fraction of the cost both in the physical body and financially. She understands how difficult people find it to change bad habits and seeks to develop ways to make the journey to good health one that is enjoyable, affordable whilst introducing the nutrition the body needs. She is an advisor on the Board of Reference of Fit For Life Forever, (newly named Stop Dieting, Start Living), which aims to bring clarity to the reason that people struggle with weight loss.

Julie also helps to bring these practical skills of preparing food to enjoy eating well, through practical demonstrations and classes via local community evening classes.