Paul James, Chef

Introducing our new cookery columnist Paul James

I’m so pleased and honoured to have been asked by Completely Bromsgrove to write a monthly column As a retired professional chef, it 3,000 followers and well in access of would be easy to just share recipes two million reaches in a year. with you but I’d like to take readers My first book is due to be on a journey beyond those recipes published soon with Austin Macauley and dishes. and my first ebook, which is now I want to tell you about my available on Amazon/Kindle, is a day culinary and cultural experiences to day diary of my visit to New York about how these dishes came about, last year with my youngest son Jay. a potted history of the places I’ve The proceeds of this book will go been fortunate to have visited and a to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital few funny stories along the way. Cancer Centre in Birmingham, which Let me tell you a little bit successfully treated my eldest son about myself. Mark last year. A serious illness nearly took my Recipes From My Travels blog life in 2017 and led to me having to continues to promote the hospitality give up the career I loved at the age and tourism industry. I love of just 45. For the past three years collaborating with individuals or I have been retired and, for the businesses on projects within these first two, I totally fell out of love for industries, helping them to set up cooking and the industry - mainly and progress further. due to feeling bitter about losing The fantastic team behind Recipes my career. From My Travels are now moving Last year on a short trip to forward to make us one of the most Kassiopi in Corfu, something recognised names in the hospitality connected - seeing the culture and and tourism industry worldwide. beautiful scenery, but mainly the We have chefs, consultants and amazing food that was on offer, backroom help, readily available from rekindled the spark inside me. a very close knit family and friends I decided to get involved again and set up. started my own Recipes From My On a personal note, without their Travels blog. To be honest, it started help I would not have achieved by just recreating recipes from places any of this success so far. This is an I’ve been fortunate enough to visit. amazing story from heartbreak to To start with I wasn’t very social happiness so join us as a family on media or computer savvy but the this incredible journey. blog has now grown to more than