Happy New Year to you all! Is it still acceptable to utter those words even though we’re half-way through January? 

Anyway, 2016 certainly was a great year from a cooking and travelling perspective. I was fortunate to experience  a lot, and meet some fantastic people along the way. 

My highlights were hosting my first Supper Club, spending 3 weeks travelling around South America, and producing a series of cooking videos. You can read all about these highlights in previous blogs on this website. 

The cooking videos, nine made in total, can be viewed on my Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/MessyCook79/

Beautiful scenery on the 3 day hike to Machu Pichu, Peru (May 2016)

The Amazon, Bolivian side (May 2016)

Customers tucking in at my Supper Club Night (October 2016) 

Serving up Malaysian Prawns at my Supper Club Night (October 2016)

The Messy Festive Stuffing Cooking Video (reached 12k Facebook views!)

I had a great team behind me last year. Big thanks to Mark and Andrew for the excellent filming and editing work on the Messy Cook videos, to Susan for being my Sous Chef along with Mark at my Supper Club, to my lovely siblings Maria and John for serving on the night, and to Sofyanah for winning my 2016 Chief Food Taster award! Thanks also to my friends, family and complete strangers who supported me during the year. 

The Messy Cook Video Production Team (December 2016) 

So, what’s in store in 2017? Well, hopefully a few more Supper Clubs. I’m in the process of confirming another Leeds venue for Spring time, and I want  to head over to the other side of the Pennines and host one in Manchester. 

My first trip of the year has been booked, a long weekend to Prague in March. It’ll be my first visit to the Czech Republic, and I’m looking forward to eating at the numerous food markets, and trying some of the country’s finest beer! I’ll also be making a video of the trip.

I attended the first Leeds Bloggers meet up last week. It was great meeting other bloggers sharing stories and advice, hopefully this will become a regular meet up. 

Keep posted for more recipes, reviews and updates on all things Messy Cook related. 

Much love 

The Messy Cook x 

(January 2017)