To me, food is more than sustenance - it’s a profound connector.

Emigration was part of my generation, a given…

and I was ready, with a humongous appetite for life and cake. Neither of which has waned.

I was born and raised in Limerick and now call Dublin my home after a few stops in Paris, Brussels and finally the U.S., where I spent 24+ years in advertising in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. It is fair to say, I picked up a thing or two about advertising and selling products. This is what I know for sure:  Products might perform exactly as they say on the tin, following a health trend or a niche, but not all ingredients are created equal. Spin is everywhere. Oh what a tangled web we weave, etc. etc. But as in life, brands are not just about the story but how you tell it.  I was very good at that.

For my second career, I came home and followed my passion for food by training as a chef at the Ballymaloe Organic Cookery School in Ireland. The Culinary Institute of America in California forced me to taste thousands of wines for months, turning me into a Court of Masters’ Sommelier. I studied integrative nutritional health in New York and culinary medicine and metabolic health in the UK.

Today, I help people understand how food can play such an important role by using the power of culinary medicine. I firmly believe that real health starts with what you do before you need a doctor.

Whether it’s through consulting, speaking, integrating culinary medicine into kitchens, or helping food brands showcase their benefits—it’s all about drawing out the real health story and telling it in a way that resonates, cutting through the noise.

So, while I might joke that I am the human version of The United Nations of Health (or just plain obsessed), I am deadly serious about the power of real food - the people who produce it, champion it and cook it, and the sense of connection and well-being it brings for everyone.

So until we meet, go out there and be fabulous and kind, the world needs more of that.