One of John-Luke’s favourite things to do was get a new cookery book and flip through marking the new recipes he wanted to try. True to his accountancy roots, he had a recipe spreadsheet detailing the name of the dish, which meal of the day it was suitable for, recipe book name, and the page number of the book where it could be found. To be fair this was a good idea as we had so many books it was hard to remember it all! A couple of years ago he’d treated himself to a fancy ice cream maker, so he went through a phase of making amazing ice cream. He was also always really excited about cooking with the veg he’d grown in the garden (something he only just got into in lockdown). Although he was the best cook out of the two of us, there were a few things he said he still needed me for - rice, roast potatoes, and homemade pizza. Putting together the recipes for this page brought back a lot of memories. We visited Bill Granger’s original cafe in Sydney and had those sweetcorn fritters for brunch. He was so happy to be there - Bill was one of John-Luke’s favourite chefs when he was just getting into cooking. He went through a phase of making that recipe a lot when we got back from the holiday.

Whenever we stayed with Ellen and John-Luke they would always make a real effort to plan the meals and make us lovely food while we were there. John-Luke was always on the main or savoury courses, while Ellen took care of puddings. In true accountant fashion, he would meticulously follow the recipe to the letter - so if it called for 6 peppercorns, he would use 6 peppercorns, no more, no less. And he was completely unapologetic about that! So one time we stayed and he was making a roasted tomato soup from a cookbook by Bill Granger, and unbeknownst to us, the recipe called for a tablespoon of salt. Now, a more laissez-faire cook may have looked at that and thought 'a tablespoon? Surely that's a typo, a tablespoon would be insanely salty!' But of course John-Luke being the chef he was, he had to stick to the rules. So we sat down to eat this delicious-smelling soup with real anticipation, looking forward to another tasty meal courtesy of Mr Doran...and we were quickly reaching for the water! Being the polite guests we were, we tried not to complain, but we all acknowledged it was perhaps saltier than we might have preferred. And then he mentioned the tablespoon and everything became clear! For the record, it was the only meal he ever cooked us which wasn't delightful!

Food was a huge passion of John-Luke’s and it was always a pleasure to have him cook for you. Most recently, John-Luke really enjoyed growing his own salad and vegetables, and Harry would love taking a trip down to the end of the garden to pick some lettuce for dinner. We have some wonderful food inspired memories to share:

John-Luke loved Ikea garlic bread, always ordering not just one or two slices, as would be socially acceptable, but 6. Because why wouldn’t you buy 6 when it is only 99p? As with everything in his life, John-Luke had absolutely no regrets to this, or embarrassment, and would regularly request garlic bread whenever anyone visited IKEA (tongue in cheek obviously – he wasn’t crazy enough to eat it cold!)

During lockdown Christmas we were lucky enough to spend the morning with Ellen and John-Luke, who had put on a fantastic spread of breakfast items, all of which involved googly eyes! Croissant frogs, muffins, fruit, it would have been hard to eat if they weren’t so delicious!

BBQs were always amazing at Ellen and John-Luke’s. The salads and potato side dishes were so full of colour and flavour, these would have been more than enough. But John-Luke knew the importance of halloumi in a vegetarian BBQ, and never disappointed.

Our last big social engagement with John-Luke was to celebrate Jimmy’s 21st birthday in July 2021 with a pizza party. Little did Ellen and John-Luke know how much coal was needed to keep a BBQ pizza oven going for 8 pizzas! But yet again, John-Luke’s hosting skills didn’t disappoint, and his persistence paid off as we all enjoyed delicious, BBQ oven made pizzas.

Back when John-Luke and Ellen were still living in Twickenham, and before their conversion to plant forward cuisine, I was treated to one of John-Luke's experiments in the kitchen - homemade fishcakes. I remember a lot, and I mean, a lot of mashed potato, tuna, sweetcorn and the meticulous mixing and spooning of it all into a Yorkshire pudding tin. Suffice to say, when they came out of the oven they were even more enormous and John-Luke was delighted (they were bloody tasty too). Despite being rhubarbmash on Instagram for my love of both rhubarb, and more importantly, mashed potatoes, those fishcakes definitely bested me! Phew, getting a bit full just thinking of them now…