Kate Young is a food writer who connects recipes with literature in her award winning Little Library cookbooks, which grew from a successful blog. She has written about food in a variety of publications, including the Guardian and Stylist. And she does events catering on the side too.

Patricia Niven is a creative photographer, who focuses on food and the people and processes surrounding it. As well as editorial & advertising work, she’s worked on a range of cook books including four with Honey & Co. as well as other prominent chefs and food writers.

Holly Middleton Joseph is an experienced chef working in various venues in South East London, including Frank’s, The Camberwell Arms and now Mike’s.

Sal Dhalla is a chef and founder of The Food Witch. She has almost ten years of experience working with food. She describes her cooking as intuitive, creating meals for joy and self care, particularly seasonally led vegan and vegetarian food for retreats and events. Since the pandemic, she’s also been teaching cookery classes online.

Laurie Belgrave is the founder and director of the beloved South London queer bar and performance collective, The Chataeu, where the QFAB founder has spent many a night watching the best queer performers and drag queens/ kings/ artists, before getting sweaty and topless dancing among beautiful fellow queers. (One year into the pandemic, this sounds even more like a perfect dream come true.)

Fernando Berry is the founder of Otros Vinos, a London based wine importer and online shop selling natural wines by small artisan growers. Fernando spent much of his life working in hospitality in Australia and London. He began importing wine alongside full time front of house work, before finally being able to go full time with his own business.

Ella Risbridger is a food writer. Her debut cookbook ‘Midnight Chicken & other recipes worth living for’ came out in 2019 and was loved by Nigella Lawson herself. Based in Lewisham, Ella also writes articles, poetry, and her children’s novel, The Secret Detectives, is out in June.

Zoe Adjonyoh is a chef, a writer and a public speaker. She is founder of Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, a West African food brand and cookbook by the same name. As well as the co-founder of Black Book, a platform for promoting inclusivity for BIPOC people in the food world.

Melissa talks to QFAB about becoming disillusioned with journalism, then getting back into writing about what she enjoyed the most - food! As well as top tips on how to get into food writing, why challenging racism and hierarchy in the food industry matters, and some stories about a horrific chef tattoo and the perfect plate of bangers and mash.