Chef

Hi, my name is Bella. In the beginning, I wanted to explore the science behind making plant-based chocolate without refined sugar or dairy — something more rich and satisfying than the supposed ‘real thing’. I wanted to give up refined sugar for good. I spent many hours experimenting, covering myself and my tiny kitchen in chocolate, teaching myself how to temper whilst sweating over a steaming pot like a mad scientist. This was a year before my diagnosis, and the year that levelled me and my partner to our knees. I cannot talk about this dream without talking of the nightmare, because they are so entwined. Just as we are, mind and body… Before my diagnosis, I couldn’t stand the thought of going without a treat, or someone else with a serious health issue putting their long-term health at further risk just to allow themselves an occasional dessert. And then overnight it seemed, I was one of them.

On a normal day I took a seat at my old kitchen table where I’d laughed and cried and lived with my loved ones, and suddenly cancer pulled up a seat opposite and stared me down. Slowly, over time, I understood food in a new way.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of thirty-five and embarked on a long treatment journey. Which I am still on today. I paid close attention to the needs of my own mind and body, but whenever I could, I continued to research, and further develop my chocolate and bakery recipes — with the hope of making them for others.

As a former head chef and pastry chef in London, Somerset, and Wiltshire, I have cooked and baked for many familiar names during my career (John Torode, Ronnie Corbett, Jon Snow) before settling in Devon to start No Sugar Shop.