welcome everyone this is somewhat of a
technical challenge for me pardon the
pun but yeah designer or baker I always
say both I couldn’t be one without the
other although better known for winning
the Great British Bake Off my background
is actually in design and this
definitely feeds into all my ideas and
creativity so much so that I use what I
call this pencil to sort of represent
this so it’s I give equal weight to both
a spoon and a pencil when I’m drawing up
designed in my sketchbook to then
ultimately creating them out of food so
since leaving my job as a children’s web
designer at Jule’s people do often ask
me if I miss designing but I finds that
really strange because I just feel I’m
still designing now but I’ve just
swapped fabric for food and my medium is
now edible so I can eat my mistakes
basically and yeah this pencil is
definitely a very important sort of key
part to all of that so much so that I
use on my website and it’s also seen on
the cover of my book which also has how
I have all my design and baking utensils
laid next to one another if you came
into my kitchen it would literally look
like some sort of art studio with
someone with a very creative healthy
appetite so you’ve got spoons next to
pencils you’ve got spatulas next to
rulers whisks next to scalpels so it is
literally like a Willy Wonka workshop
that goes on and when I was a designer I
often had like images of food on my mood
boards and in my sketchbooks and color
palettes I would always be naming after
ingredients so all my colleagues knew
when I was naming a color palette
because creams would be mascarpone or
green would be pistachio green and this
relationship can be seen in the contents
page of my book because again I just
sort of see everything very visually and
I just find it so much easier to digest
when it’s like that and these paints
bludgers they don’t just are not just
seen in the chapters but I also have
what I call visual pie charts to
illustrate all the proportions of
my recipes ingredients so rather than
just having words and weights next to
one another I just feel that you can
actually absorb the information so much
easier when you see it broken down like
this I don’t know about you but say if
someone says a phone number really
quickly I can forget it whereas if I see
it written down I can sort of make
patterns and try and remember it that
way and even sort of pages showing how
you have a color palette with a taste
palette and seeing gradients of
different kinds of sugar from when
you’re making caramel being able to see
the butter and the sugar just laid out
like that again rather than it just
being purely written text and the token
cat coming in for good measure so yeah I
sort of said I have a habit of seeing
everything as food which actually really
helped me come up with my designs
because my degree within textiles I
think that’s why I love food so much
because it is those parallels between
textures and colors and mark-making
so for me when I see soil I sort of see
the similarities between chocolate cake
or when I was looking at a plant bulb
all the papery scales reminded me of
phyllo pastry so for me it just sort of
it’s naturally like building up an idea
and a recipe in my head
it can even be walking past a brick wall
and in my mind I’ll start seeing how
that could be translated into cocoa
powder or cinnamon and even the lines
that sort of represent the sort of
concrete they can just be really simply
done with wooden lath a sticks so often
want to go into a coffee shop I’m like
picking up utensils that I can take back
into the kitchen and this is one little
video here of just showing how this
actual bake came to life so yeah it’s
just about plastering it over with
mascarpone and then you lay down the
wooden latte sticks and then you just
over like you would a cappuccino with
cocoa powder and cinnamon call them back
and then you get individual brick pieces
of cake so again I find again videos
really helpful to sort of illustrate the
idea because you could see that coffee
and walnut cake but you’re a bit like or
what’s the process behind that
so it’s sort of trying to inspire people
and engage people to feel that they can
have a go because the one thing I sort
of find it’s sort of giving people
confidence because a lot of people say
oh I’m not a design all right I can’t
draw but I think there’s so many
different ways to express your
creativity and I think food is a really
good example of that so it’s a case of
sort of mixing up the mediums and the
technique so even using like a
stationary sort of like thing that you’d
normally use with a felt-tip if you just
get some cocoa powder and dust it over
the top you can end up with something
really effective equally using chocolate
as paint
I’ve even sort of gone into a print
workshop and rather than sprint sort of
screen printing with paint I’ve used
chocolate onto rice paper using a
squeegee instead of a dough scraper so
it’s again it’s just sort of seeing all
the different craftsmanship that goes
into all the different creative fields
but mixing them up and sort of you know
sculpting with breads how you sort of
put bread into a hot oven it’s a little
bit like how a Potter puts clay into a
really hot kill so it’s just finding the
parallels and sort of running with them
really rather than feeling oh no that’s
one discipline so you can’t take that
into another and this is the case of
like when I made a biscuit palette so
it’s just rolling out a biscuit dough
cutting it into a sort of simple palate
shape and then using caramels and jams
and chocolate spreads and the great
thing is that the Messier it is the
better it looks so you can really use
that to your advantage a little bit like
the chocolate soil like you know sort of
like chocolate pot looks absolutely
perfect and it’s been great as well sort
of doing stuff with the design museum
I’ve taken over their Instagram for font
Sunday on a few occasions and just
showing how fonts can appear in food
whether it be biscuits or doodling with
caramel and this is another video where
I’m using caramel to draw with rather
than just sort of like lace between a
millionaire shortbread
so it’s just the case of putting it in a
piping bag and then just sort of
doodling lines and then using the
popcorn to create flowers so yeah a
messy chocolate view Kay and I love the
fact that within the art world you can
sort of translate all the skills and the
technique so this was some Barbara
Hepworth inspired shortbread I did when
the Hepworth gallery up in the Wakefield
was celebrating their millionth visitor
and it was great walking around the
gallery seeing all the sort of utensils
that Barbara used to create her sort of
stonework and so I sort of translated
that into the shortbread and again
rather than having a perfect shape
because the shortbread naturally in the
oven it’s sometimes sort of it doesn’t
keep its form and so it was a really
good sort of medium to use for creating
more of this or necessarily perfectly
smooth surfaces and sketchbooks are
really important for my sort of process
so this was when I was creating the
pieces blue nude out of a cheesecake and
turning it into a blueberry nude so it
was just a sort of showing the process
behind it all and using collage like
Matisse does as well so cutouts of paper
a little bit like Matisse uses cutouts
to create all his colourful impressions
and then that turned into the Matisse
blueberry new cheesecake which took a
little bit longer than I had anticipated
that’s the problem I paint an idea in my
head very quickly but it takes that a
little bit longer to cut out so yeah
those blueberries did take a little
while so and then I remember when I got
asked to create I didn’t get asked to
create the shout out gingerbread but
they wanted a particular bake and rather
go down the route of just doing like
three tiers of cake with maybe the chard
logo on I was like well why don’t we try
and create it out of actual biscuit so
it obviously wasn’t as tall as the chard
but I certainly had to wrap all the
different pieces in bubble wrap to get
it down to London and then even just
creating little mini landmarks of London
so the BT tower turned into a tower of
shortbread and chocolate buttons and
Rolo’s but it’s again just giving people
an impression
of how food can easily translate itself
into architectural forms or pieces of
art so I definitely sort of I love
collaborating basically whether it be in
architecture or film or even music and
also really relish sometimes making
mistakes because I know that sort of the
serendipity that can come from certain
biscuit Towers collapsing or things
going wrong in the oven how you can make
them into baked such as Tiffin or
cheesecake so the base of this London
skyline is basically an amalgamation of
chocolate and broken biscuits so nothing
need be wasted just like ideas and again
this is just sort of an example of how I
jot down different quick little sketches
that will hopefully be able to translate
themselves into food and so one thing I
still really hold dearly is that I sort
of see creativity like constellations
not necessarily meringue constellations
but just how there’s lots of dots up
there and we all join them in so many
different ways and I think it’s that
sort of that should be relished that it
is a case I’m not necessarily joining
the dots in old straight lines in all
the same ways and certain stars sparkle
to people at certain different times and
also the great Albert Einstein one of
his quotes was that creativity is
contagious and that we should part it on
and I’m a big advocate of that and so a
little bit like I brought it along today
but this was the the giant Baker’s
matchbox that I did on the show and it’s
amazing how people remember this as much
as anything else and so as well as sort
of creating bread sticks out of it the
inspiration behind it really was to try
and light people’s ideas and imagination
to the fact that you know bread sticks
need just be something that’s on the
table served with like cheese and sort
of ham but actually they can be tended
to giant edible matches by just simply
dipping them into a bit of chocolate I
noticed there was some out the front so
again it’s just a really quick way if
you just melt some chocolate dip them in
you don’t even have to go
making your own I won’t judge you but
it’s sort of just sort of lighting
people’s ideas and making baek’s
interactive as well so it’s as much a
talking point as something that they
leave not just having their sort of
stomach feel but you’re also you’ve lit
someone’s mind and imagination to the
potential that can go beyond just the
page so yeah I definitely inspire
everyone to see food or something not
just to be eaten but to create with as
well I sort of turned the idea of
playing with your food on its head and
embrace it thank you very much
[Applause]
technical challenge for me pardon the
pun but yeah designer or baker I always
say both I couldn’t be one without the
other although better known for winning
the Great British Bake Off my background
is actually in design and this
definitely feeds into all my ideas and
creativity so much so that I use what I
call this pencil to sort of represent
this so it’s I give equal weight to both
a spoon and a pencil when I’m drawing up
designed in my sketchbook to then
ultimately creating them out of food so
since leaving my job as a children’s web
designer at Jule’s people do often ask
me if I miss designing but I finds that
really strange because I just feel I’m
still designing now but I’ve just
swapped fabric for food and my medium is
now edible so I can eat my mistakes
basically and yeah this pencil is
definitely a very important sort of key
part to all of that so much so that I
use on my website and it’s also seen on
the cover of my book which also has how
I have all my design and baking utensils
laid next to one another if you came
into my kitchen it would literally look
like some sort of art studio with
someone with a very creative healthy
appetite so you’ve got spoons next to
pencils you’ve got spatulas next to
rulers whisks next to scalpels so it is
literally like a Willy Wonka workshop
that goes on and when I was a designer I
often had like images of food on my mood
boards and in my sketchbooks and color
palettes I would always be naming after
ingredients so all my colleagues knew
when I was naming a color palette
because creams would be mascarpone or
green would be pistachio green and this
relationship can be seen in the contents
page of my book because again I just
sort of see everything very visually and
I just find it so much easier to digest
when it’s like that and these paints
bludgers they don’t just are not just
seen in the chapters but I also have
what I call visual pie charts to
illustrate all the proportions of
my recipes ingredients so rather than
just having words and weights next to
one another I just feel that you can
actually absorb the information so much
easier when you see it broken down like
this I don’t know about you but say if
someone says a phone number really
quickly I can forget it whereas if I see
it written down I can sort of make
patterns and try and remember it that
way and even sort of pages showing how
you have a color palette with a taste
palette and seeing gradients of
different kinds of sugar from when
you’re making caramel being able to see
the butter and the sugar just laid out
like that again rather than it just
being purely written text and the token
cat coming in for good measure so yeah I
sort of said I have a habit of seeing
everything as food which actually really
helped me come up with my designs
because my degree within textiles I
think that’s why I love food so much
because it is those parallels between
textures and colors and mark-making
so for me when I see soil I sort of see
the similarities between chocolate cake
or when I was looking at a plant bulb
all the papery scales reminded me of
phyllo pastry so for me it just sort of
it’s naturally like building up an idea
and a recipe in my head
it can even be walking past a brick wall
and in my mind I’ll start seeing how
that could be translated into cocoa
powder or cinnamon and even the lines
that sort of represent the sort of
concrete they can just be really simply
done with wooden lath a sticks so often
want to go into a coffee shop I’m like
picking up utensils that I can take back
into the kitchen and this is one little
video here of just showing how this
actual bake came to life so yeah it’s
just about plastering it over with
mascarpone and then you lay down the
wooden latte sticks and then you just
over like you would a cappuccino with
cocoa powder and cinnamon call them back
and then you get individual brick pieces
of cake so again I find again videos
really helpful to sort of illustrate the
idea because you could see that coffee
and walnut cake but you’re a bit like or
what’s the process behind that
so it’s sort of trying to inspire people
and engage people to feel that they can
have a go because the one thing I sort
of find it’s sort of giving people
confidence because a lot of people say
oh I’m not a design all right I can’t
draw but I think there’s so many
different ways to express your
creativity and I think food is a really
good example of that so it’s a case of
sort of mixing up the mediums and the
technique so even using like a
stationary sort of like thing that you’d
normally use with a felt-tip if you just
get some cocoa powder and dust it over
the top you can end up with something
really effective equally using chocolate
as paint
I’ve even sort of gone into a print
workshop and rather than sprint sort of
screen printing with paint I’ve used
chocolate onto rice paper using a
squeegee instead of a dough scraper so
it’s again it’s just sort of seeing all
the different craftsmanship that goes
into all the different creative fields
but mixing them up and sort of you know
sculpting with breads how you sort of
put bread into a hot oven it’s a little
bit like how a Potter puts clay into a
really hot kill so it’s just finding the
parallels and sort of running with them
really rather than feeling oh no that’s
one discipline so you can’t take that
into another and this is the case of
like when I made a biscuit palette so
it’s just rolling out a biscuit dough
cutting it into a sort of simple palate
shape and then using caramels and jams
and chocolate spreads and the great
thing is that the Messier it is the
better it looks so you can really use
that to your advantage a little bit like
the chocolate soil like you know sort of
like chocolate pot looks absolutely
perfect and it’s been great as well sort
of doing stuff with the design museum
I’ve taken over their Instagram for font
Sunday on a few occasions and just
showing how fonts can appear in food
whether it be biscuits or doodling with
caramel and this is another video where
I’m using caramel to draw with rather
than just sort of like lace between a
millionaire shortbread
so it’s just the case of putting it in a
piping bag and then just sort of
doodling lines and then using the
popcorn to create flowers so yeah a
messy chocolate view Kay and I love the
fact that within the art world you can
sort of translate all the skills and the
technique so this was some Barbara
Hepworth inspired shortbread I did when
the Hepworth gallery up in the Wakefield
was celebrating their millionth visitor
and it was great walking around the
gallery seeing all the sort of utensils
that Barbara used to create her sort of
stonework and so I sort of translated
that into the shortbread and again
rather than having a perfect shape
because the shortbread naturally in the
oven it’s sometimes sort of it doesn’t
keep its form and so it was a really
good sort of medium to use for creating
more of this or necessarily perfectly
smooth surfaces and sketchbooks are
really important for my sort of process
so this was when I was creating the
pieces blue nude out of a cheesecake and
turning it into a blueberry nude so it
was just a sort of showing the process
behind it all and using collage like
Matisse does as well so cutouts of paper
a little bit like Matisse uses cutouts
to create all his colourful impressions
and then that turned into the Matisse
blueberry new cheesecake which took a
little bit longer than I had anticipated
that’s the problem I paint an idea in my
head very quickly but it takes that a
little bit longer to cut out so yeah
those blueberries did take a little
while so and then I remember when I got
asked to create I didn’t get asked to
create the shout out gingerbread but
they wanted a particular bake and rather
go down the route of just doing like
three tiers of cake with maybe the chard
logo on I was like well why don’t we try
and create it out of actual biscuit so
it obviously wasn’t as tall as the chard
but I certainly had to wrap all the
different pieces in bubble wrap to get
it down to London and then even just
creating little mini landmarks of London
so the BT tower turned into a tower of
shortbread and chocolate buttons and
Rolo’s but it’s again just giving people
an impression
of how food can easily translate itself
into architectural forms or pieces of
art so I definitely sort of I love
collaborating basically whether it be in
architecture or film or even music and
also really relish sometimes making
mistakes because I know that sort of the
serendipity that can come from certain
biscuit Towers collapsing or things
going wrong in the oven how you can make
them into baked such as Tiffin or
cheesecake so the base of this London
skyline is basically an amalgamation of
chocolate and broken biscuits so nothing
need be wasted just like ideas and again
this is just sort of an example of how I
jot down different quick little sketches
that will hopefully be able to translate
themselves into food and so one thing I
still really hold dearly is that I sort
of see creativity like constellations
not necessarily meringue constellations
but just how there’s lots of dots up
there and we all join them in so many
different ways and I think it’s that
sort of that should be relished that it
is a case I’m not necessarily joining
the dots in old straight lines in all
the same ways and certain stars sparkle
to people at certain different times and
also the great Albert Einstein one of
his quotes was that creativity is
contagious and that we should part it on
and I’m a big advocate of that and so a
little bit like I brought it along today
but this was the the giant Baker’s
matchbox that I did on the show and it’s
amazing how people remember this as much
as anything else and so as well as sort
of creating bread sticks out of it the
inspiration behind it really was to try
and light people’s ideas and imagination
to the fact that you know bread sticks
need just be something that’s on the
table served with like cheese and sort
of ham but actually they can be tended
to giant edible matches by just simply
dipping them into a bit of chocolate I
noticed there was some out the front so
again it’s just a really quick way if
you just melt some chocolate dip them in
you don’t even have to go
making your own I won’t judge you but
it’s sort of just sort of lighting
people’s ideas and making baek’s
interactive as well so it’s as much a
talking point as something that they
leave not just having their sort of
stomach feel but you’re also you’ve lit
someone’s mind and imagination to the
potential that can go beyond just the
page so yeah I definitely inspire
everyone to see food or something not
just to be eaten but to create with as
well I sort of turned the idea of
playing with your food on its head and
embrace it thank you very much
[Applause]
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