Where It Started
I walked away from two bakeries and took my heart with me. That’s not a metaphor. It’s just what happened.
The Yorkshireman’s Pie Bakery was everything. My husband had designed them and I had built them. Named after him as my legacy to the man I loved. Every pie, every sausage roll, every pastry that came out of that kitchen carried everything I had in me. I would stand behind that counter and watch people take their first bite.
Eyes close. Shoulders drop. No words needed. I knew. Every single time, I just knew.
But businesses are hard. And people can be harder.
After my second mastectomy, when I was already running on empty, I made the decision to walk away. Quickly. Cleanly. Before it took anything else from me.
The relief didn’t last long before the sadness moved in. We stood and watched it all get dismantled. Everything my husband had designed. Everything I had built. Gone.
Then the messages started arriving.
We miss your food. Where do we go now? Is there any way you can still make it?
Nearly 800 people followed the baker, not the bakery. And it’s still growing.
I wouldn't open another bakery, but I could do something nobody could dismantle, take apart, or walk away with. I could write it all down.
Every recipe. Every technique. Every little thing that made shoulders drop at my counter. So I poured it all into a cookbook and handed it back to the people who had stood in my bakery and felt something they couldn’t quite explain.
Pork Pies & the Perfect Pickle isn’t just a cookbook. It’s everything I walked out the door with.
And now it can live in your kitchen too.
I walked away from two bakeries and took my heart with me. That’s not a metaphor. It’s just what happened.
The Yorkshireman’s Pie Bakery was everything. My husband had designed them and I had built them. Named after him as my legacy to the man I loved. Every pie, every sausage roll, every pastry that came out of that kitchen carried everything I had in me. I would stand behind that counter and watch people take their first bite.
Eyes close. Shoulders drop. No words needed. I knew. Every single time, I just knew.
But businesses are hard. And people can be harder.
After my second mastectomy, when I was already running on empty, I made the decision to walk away. Quickly. Cleanly. Before it took anything else from me.
The relief didn’t last long before the sadness moved in. We stood and watched it all get dismantled. Everything my husband had designed. Everything I had built. Gone.
Then the messages started arriving.
We miss your food. Where do we go now? Is there any way you can still make it?
Nearly 800 people followed the baker, not the bakery. And it’s still growing.
I wouldn't open another bakery, but I could do something nobody could dismantle, take apart, or walk away with. I could write it all down.
Every recipe. Every technique. Every little thing that made shoulders drop at my counter. So I poured it all into a cookbook and handed it back to the people who had stood in my bakery and felt something they couldn’t quite explain.
Pork Pies & the Perfect Pickle isn’t just a cookbook. It’s everything I walked out the door with.
And now it can live in your kitchen too.