“Start cooking as young as possible and start with vegetables, not cakes!” Jo Ingleby cooks with creativity. She trained as an artist before working as a chef. Her recipes and menus are colourful and multi-sensory, an approach which she also uses when creating elaborate events and supperclubs in Bristol. For three years Jo was Head Chef of Demuths Restaurant in Bath and she was a founder tutor at their award winning Cookery School. Demuths is renowned for its vibrant, modern vegetarian cookery which is influenced by world food. Jo leads courses in everything from Indian cookery, Thai and Tapas to modern restaurant style cookery and knife skills. She is the winner of the BBC Cook of the year in the 2015 Food and Farming Awards.
Jo leads a ground-breaking food project for children aged between the ages of 2 and 4 who attend Redcliffe Children’s Centre in central Bristol. The Children’s Centre is council-run and the children mainly live in the surrounding high-rise flats. The Food Project encourages young children to explore, experiment and eat fresh vegetables by following their creativity and interests. Jo started the project with Redcliffe in 2006 as research into young children’s creativity and it has developed to include regular food sessions in the purpose-built children’s kitchen, growing fresh produce at the local city farm and cooking healthy lunches every day.