Rebuilding our kitchen CONFIDENCE

Is our nation losing faith in its cooking ability? We talk to one reader teaching others how to feel comfortable in the kitchen

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Rushing home after a full day at work, Annabel Gonifas scanned the contents of her fridge for fresh ingredients and wondered what would be the quickest thing to cook.

As an experienced chef, she was used to conjuring up delicious healthy meals, but after a long day at work and three hungry toddlers in tow, she found herself in new territory.

Annabel’s passion for cooking started when she was 18, after doing a course at the Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. She was head chef at a restaurant on an island in the Inner Hebrides, before moving to Austria, where she ran a chalet business with her husband, Jason, in the ski resort of St Anton. Focusing on good, homemade, local seasonal food, she cooked for parties of 16 and was asked so often for recipes, she wrote a cookbook.

Chatting to her guests, she realised that while a lot of them enjoyed cooking, they often lacked confidence, and were confused by conflicting messages of what they should and shouldn’t eat.

As a skilled chef, confidence was something Annabel had always taken for granted – until 2013, when she moved back to the UK and had children of her own.

‘When my son, Toby, and daughter, Skye, were one and two, they were diagnosed with cow’s milk protein allergy, I am gluten free, my four- year-old, Casper, was a picky eater, and my husband is South African and likes to eat