'Building a multi-million pound children's nutrition empire from my kitchen' - Annabel Karmel MBE

Annabel Karmel MBE's business was born out of a place of darkness. After tragically losing her first baby; Natasha, she gave birth to her son Nicholas. Nicholas was a very picky eater and as many mother would be; she was concerned and wanted to create delicious meals with nutritional value. She started experimenting and making amazing meals, the local mothers' group she had created started vying for her recipes and realising how successfully they were received by their babies. She was encouraged to create a recipe book of them and travelled up and down the country attempting to speak to experts to curate knowledge based recipes. Each expert have a different opinion on what was 'good' to feed your weaning baby. She was rejected by every publishing house in the country but persevered as the book was in honour of Natasha to keep her memory alive. The book was eventually picked up by a huge American publishing house and subsequently Penguin decided to publish in the UK. What happened next was incredible... She sold over 5 million copies and became the worlds biggest selling childrens' cookery author. But she didn't stop there, she has now published 51 recipe books, has a cult following, has collaborated with the likes of Marks and Spencer and Boots and has developed her very own frozen food range. She has an app, a youtube channel with live cooking demos and designs ranges for cruise lines and luxury hotels around the world - her range has even launched in Australia. Annabel is an example of turning your pain into passion and she has not only created the most beautiful legacy for Natasha but an empire for her children to eventually take over. She has remained completely hands on in the business, spending time in factories, dressing up as characters to entertain children and continuously innovate. As she says 'you've got to love what you do'. She is constantly learning and evolving and perhaps that is one of the reasons she is so successful, she strives for perfection and has remained humble throughout. She has built an unbelievably impressive, multi-faceted business and she isn't stopping here. She is savvy, switched on, curious and overall ethical. A true female entrepreneur to aspire to.