TV's Great British Menu was just for starters for Little Chef Sally

GLASTONBURY IS UP NEXT FOR GIRL FROM MANSFIELD WHO ROSE TO THE TOP IN MALE-DOMINATED WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL KITCHENS

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS

AS years go, 2025 is turning out to be a monumental one for chef Sally Abé.

The 38-year-old, who grew up in Mansfield, has been on TV, cooked at a palace, won an award for her debut book. And next month she'll be on stage at Glastonbury.

In the meantime, she’s started a new job at a country pub in the Cotswolds.

“It’s been a big year” says Sally, who went to High Oakham Middle School and the Brunts Academy before going on to take A-Levels in English language, English literature and graphic design at High Pavement Sixth Form in Nottingham.

“I think I got three Cs. By the time I got to my A-levels I was over school. I was more busy sitting in the Arboretum than I was going to lessons,” she confesses.

As a teenager, she never had a burning ambition to be a chef. At one point she wanted to be a journalist, another dream was to present the Radio One Breakfast Show. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do so I was clutching at straws a little bit.”

Growing up at home with her mum Caroline Webster, a teacher, her dad Reg, a sparky, and younger sister Alice, the family wasn’t into fancy food. “We didn’t really eat in restaurants a great deal. We used to go to the local pub and get scampi and chips but we weren't a massive foodie family. We never ate in posh restaurants.

“It wasn’t particularly a foodie upbringing. We were just a normal family - fish and chips on a Friday and roast chicken on a Sunday. Nothing out of the ordinary,’ says Sally.

Aged 18 she moved to Sheffield with her boyfriend, surviving on Richmond sausages and instant mash. Sally says: “Neither of us had run a household before and we were pretty skint. He was at uni and I was working an office job so we were trying to save money and feed ourselves so we ate a lot of ready meals and Smash.