In 2005 I was lucky enough to be presented with the opportunity to write a cookbook. I had just arrived back into Australia after working as Head Chef for Jamie Oliver’s first restaurant “Fifteen” in London. Whilst working for Jamie I was exposed to a lot of new things including a life changing moment when I was part of a shoot for one of Jamie’s books. The photographer was the talented Chris Terry. There was a moment when Chris was shooting a Risotto and mentioned how delicious it looked, I offered him a bowl as we had extra and he told me of his serious allergy to dairy, I responded with “oh that’s fine, i’ll make it a different way and exchange a couple of ingredients”. He asked that if I ever had the option to write a book that I make little notes at the bottom of each recipe that gives direction for any adjustments that should be made to make it suitable for various intolerances.

In 2005 the only books available to people with intolerances were in the medical section of bookshops and people with an intolerance were very much an afterthought. I felt there should be a book that includes everyone as much as possible. I contacted the talented Dr Sue Nienkemper who is a total authority on the subject and I emailed all my recipes to her and together we came up with adjustments for every recipe so everyone could sit down at a dinner table and enjoy the same meal, some with perhaps some slight adjustments. This was the first of three books I would write in this format with my fourth book being gluten free and my fifth being plant based.

Made by tobie is a continuation of my work in this area. The only products containing gluten are the pasta’s and it’s been this way from the beginning. For all the proteins, rice flour is used for dusting meat or corn flour is used to thicken sauces.

I am so proud to say that after 30 years of cooking and 5 cookbooks i’m able to offer a food brand that strives to use the most environmentally friendly packaging, uses free range organic proteins, solely sustainable fish options and caters to plant based, vegetarian, pescatarians, gluten free, fructose intolerant, dairy intolerant, IBS and FODMAP.

If you have got this far I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this.

It means the world to me.

Tobie xx