I’ve learned to channel my pain and any kind of emotion that makes me ache on the inside, into something creative. The pain helps with the creative process. The ache that grows deeper every day, sparks off writing that seems to flow effortlessly and organically.

Pain creates raw creativity in an artist that allows them to express vulnerability and raw emotions that can bleed onto paper.

My latest cookbook is a direct result of heartache, mourning, loss and grief. Losing my mom triggered a plethora of emotions that I clearly wasn’t ready to come to terms with. It was also during the same time that I started paging through the handwritten recipes of my late grandmother. A window to the past, an ending if you will, seems to morph into a beginning.

By this I mean, the very same handwritten recipes, found themselves nestled in between spices, food props, utensils, crockery and fabrics. My new recipes and tales of my late mom accompanied old handwritten recipes of my grandmother. Grief and longing turned into creative catharsis, hurt into healing, and the past reincarnated.