About Annette

A passion for real food

Annette Gibbons is a well known champion of real food in Cumbria. Her Food Safaris and cookery demonstrations are famous throughout the Lake District and she is considered to be an expert in Slow Food. She is a regular contributor to magazine and newspaper articles on food related issues, and her face is a familiar site to all who watch Border TV. In 2006 she was chosen to represent Cumbria at the Slow Movement at Terra Madre in Italy.

“My passion for Real Food began in childhood. My earliest memories are of brushing past tomato plants in the greenhouse and smelling the sweet scent of the growing leaves. This connection with food and the way it’s produced has stayed with me all my life.

I trained in Home Economics, after which I travelled extensively, enjoying the best of the world’s food along the way. My culinary adventures included working as an au pair in Geneva and many years living in South Africa and Rhodesia. I eventually arrived in rural Cumbria.

I quickly identified the exceptional quality of Cumbrian food producers and felt there was a real need to showcase this culinary expertise to a wider audience – this became the initial inspiration behind Cumbria On A Plate and the introduction of my Food Safaris. In 2006, I was awarded Cumbria Woman of the year. This was a wonderful unexpected accolade celebrating my work with local food, as I was nominated by the food producers themselves.

I also run daytime cookery teaching sessions at my seaside home. They are full people looking for inspiration or reassurance of their own cooking skills. My aim is for everyone to enjoy real food and to support local producers wherever possible.”

Annette