MORE ABOUT KAT

First of all, I am originally from Hungary but after finishing my economics degree I felt a need to get out and see the world, it was while I was travelling that I found my real passion of food, who knew there was more to it than just eating, not that I have any problems with that part either. My travels have taken me all over the world from Spain to Mexico and Italy to Japan but as of the last 15 years I have settled in the UK and built myself a home, sure the background changes from time to time but the UK is the one for me for now. 

I started out as a chef then a pastry chef/baker, eventually ending up as a Vien chef. I really enjoyed my time in kitchens as I have always felt that the best way to learn something is by doing it and wow did I learn. But, as so often is the case and being the nosy person that I am, I wanted to figure it out on a deeper level and so I eventually fell into the microbial world of fermentation. My travels to Japan really showed me that there was more to food than just growing, peeling, sauteing and plating it could also be broken down by moulds, enzymes changing proteins into amino acids and carbohydrates into sugars that can be eaten by the wonderful microbial world and aged. This new idea of fermenting foods for preservation and the flavours it creates was like nothing I had ever had, which of course meant I needed to know everything about it and was now hooked. 

So, although I started my life as a chef in the traditional French brigade, I now see myself as more of a food scientist with cheffing tendencies and a quirk for foraging. You’ll typically find me in my home lab babying one of the 100 or so ferments I have on at any one time, trying to figure out new flavour combinations or ways of incorporating by products to further reduce food waste; or I’ll be out in your local forest grabbing everything that grows from berries to mushrooms, nothing is safe from my fermenting crock. 

So, if you want to know who I am in short? Well, I’m Kat, the food scientist with a passion for ferments, food waste and all things bubbly. I am always wanting to push the boundaries of what is, what could be and what has been while still respecting the traditions and lessons that come with them. I want a world coloured with flavours and where people get to know their environment by the things that they eat, not just the prepackaged disconnect of this modern world