STYLISH

Some of her inspiration comes from cultures which are much closer to their roots than we are in Britain. Fluent in Spanish, she has travelled the world, opening a large restaurant and cocktail bar in Mexico City. She admits to a 'special fondness' for Latin food: 'Mexican is like Italian food, it is highly regional and places huge importance on the quality of ingredients'.

Thomasina believes we could all benefit from a different approach to our ingrained 'stock-up-from-the-supermarket' style of shopping. And she is a great supporter of local markets which provide fresh from the field produce. 'Eating food in season', she says, 'was the way our parents and grandparents always ate'. I do realise that we will always have to import what we can't grow ourselves, but as a general rule, the more food we can produce locally, the less it has to travel and the more we will benefit from the fresh vitamins and minerals that are lost in transport and storage.'

Thomasina has already co-written 'Soup Kitchen' with friend and colleague Annabel Buckingham. They collated soup recipes provided by celebrity chefs and the proceeds of the book went to charities for the homeless.