My cookbook drops

Today is the day. My new cookbook is out. I mean it literally should have dropped through your letterboxes this morning. I so excited to hear what you guys think.

This book is a huge step up for me, so I am also terrified that only me and my mum buy a copy and it won’t get the attention that it deserves. Don't judge, but my goal is a Times Best Seller. You are never supposed to say these things out loud but I’m going to take Timothée Chalamet's approach and manifest so the universe knows (please hear me!!).

At uni I did a course called Classical Studies. Before you congratulate me for learning Latin, that's a different course. I wrote the most boring thesis of all time – I’m dyslexic and 18k words was hell – and after handing it in, I promised myself I would never ever do anything like that again. Ironic, as I have gone on to publish eight cookbooks.

When Covid hit, my writing career disappeared overnight. I was very lucky and moved into my sister's house. They literally saved me from being alone. To keep myself busy, I started filming recipe videos. My niece and nephews used to help me in between home schooling. I really struggled with my confidence and was doing that super annoying thing – I don’t know if you do it too – of benchmarking myself against other people. Then Instagram introduced Reels - short form video content - and everything changed.

My audience grew fast. I ran it like a business going from 40k followers to 1.1 million. Other doors started opening, I joined the team at Morning Live on BBC1 as a chef and got a book deal with Michael Joseph Penguin.

You guys have literally given me a new career, and frankly a massive new lease of life. So thank you. Like really, really thank you. I could not have written this book without you. So now it's over to you. It's not mine anymore. It’s yours and I really hope you love it. Thank you a million xxxx John