Sugar and spice and all things nice

Sue is joined once again by guest host Hari Ghotra, who is astounded by the sheer amount of food in the studio. She’ll soon get used to that… This week they have the great pleasure of chatting to Kumud Gandhi, founder of The Cooking Academy and widely recognised as “the Spice Queen”. Hailing from a family of spice merchants and chemists, Kumud is fascinated by the “alchemy of food” and she has brought along some samples of her amazing cookery to share with Sue and Hari. Statistics reveal that 18% of people cook from scratch less than once a month, or even never. So, how can The Cooking Academy help to inspire home would-be cooks to get into the kitchen?  Social media has transformed the way we communicate, connect and consume over the last 10 years or so and the first guest is social media success personified. Olivia Wollenberg certainly hit the ground running when she founded Livia’s Kitchen in 2014, with the aim of producing indulgent treats that wouldn’t trigger her food intolerances. Just 11 weeks after having the idea for the business, Olivia was launching her Superfood Crumbles exclusively in Selfridges. Her subsequent recipe blog went on to attract 300,000 hits in the first month. Sue and Hari want to know how she did it!