Fliss Freeborn

Fliss Freeborn wrote her first 'cookbook' aged 8. It included a recipe for clotted cream and golden syrup on toast, and instructed readers to eat cake batter straight out of the bowl rather than bothering to turn on their ovens. From the age of 12, she was the primary cook at home, later taking a job in a café as a prep and dessert chef. During school holidays, she worked in the galley of a charter boat, which meant by the time she arrived at university, she was well-versed in cooking delicious food for large groups of people on a tight budget. In 2017, she started her blog - Student Cuisine for the Gloomy Teen - to share her recipes, accompanied by a hefty side-salad of surrealist humour. She still maintains that clotted cream and golden syrup on toast is an outrageously good snack, but now prefers her cake batter fully cooked. Fliss has written for the Guardian and is the youngest ever panel member on BBC R4's The Kitchen Cabinet. Do Yourself a Flavour is her first book. Fliss Freeborn is Fortnum and Mason's Cookery Writer of the Year 2023.