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Straight-talking, inspiring entrepreneur Sarah Willingham tells us about being a curious child, but when her Dad wouldn’t let her have a gap year, she set off to pursue her love of food and international travel in business. After learning the ropes at Pizza Express, she realised she wanted a large family and that she’d have to create her own career to make her life work with small children. She says she loves chaos and having four children in four years has meant she’s had to accept that having it all has to be a giant compromise. After recording Dragon’s Den she took off around the world with her kids and Michael her husband for three years and found clarity once the adrenalin had left her system. She says her life hack is to get back to nature and she walks to empty her mind.Now settled in Brighton, she runs Nightcap, a big hospitality business, with Michael, but when the opportunity came just before Christmas to buy the i360, she stepped in at the last moment and bought the iconic landmark, saving it from being dismantled. Sarah is passionate about regenerating the i360, particularly the building beneath the tower and she’s buzzing with plans. Fresh from the amazing Brighton marathon weekend, Sarah says the middle of the prom deserves to be activated and we couldn’t agree more. Whilst she’d be happy living in a caravan herself and not being at all materialistic, Sarah shows us a special ring that reminds her of her soul mate, Richard, and a romantic small red book she made for Michael. Follow her on instagram @sarahwillingham @poshtottydesigns

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Chef, broadcaster, food judge, teacher and prolific writer with 56 cookbooks to her name, Valentina Harris joins us for a mouth-watering chat about her extraordinary life and career. Full of wit and wisdom, Valentina shares her love of regional Italian food, the importance of not serving an Italian an incorrect dish and her fury at the current trend of frying gnocchi. Called the ‘Queen of Risotto’, she shares her secrets of Italy’s iconic rice dish, as well as answering many other foody questions, although her experience with roasted stuffed horse penis was somewhat hair-raising! Her special keepsakes include her first award for cookery writing, her grandmother’s jade balls used for hand exercises, a note from Stanley Tucci with his recommendation of a recipe for the spectacular ‘Timpano’ dish as well as her mother’s unusual silver bangle. We were ready to pack our bags for Italy straight after our chat. Fortunately, Valentina runs cookery courses closer to home in the old kitchen at Parham House. For more details join her on instagram @chef_valentina

@poshtottydesigns

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Our guest this week is legendary food writer, illustrator and broadcaster Elisabeth Luard. Joining us from London, Elisabeth candidly recalls adventures from her extraordinary life, describing how, after growing up in Uruguay and boarding school, she was a young journalist on Private Eye, when she met her husband, Nicholas Luard. Marrying at 21 and having four children in quick succession, Elisabeth decamped to rural Andalusia, finding a way into food writing and the traditional recipes via the locals at the school gates where her kids learnt to trap and skin rabbits. After a couple of shows in a top wildlife gallery exhibiting her natural history paintings, she started writing about food in 'The Field' magazine accompanied by her own illustrations, but her passion was to write a book about real peasant cookery and the importance of knowing the land, the limitations of fresh produce and only using what's seasonal and local. A concept that seemed transgressive at the time, but has, as she says, come full circle. Full of wisdom and wit, Elisabeth has travelled all over the world and enlightens us about some of the foods she's encountered along the way, such smoked reindeer tongue, as well as making a case for bringing back salep, a powdered dried orchid root. She doesn't 'do' jewellery as she's always cooking, but she shows us two of her treasured rings - a sapphire ring belonging to her late daughter, Francesca, as well her welsh gold wedding ring. Writing regularly on Substack (elisabethluard@substack.com)

connected and that to forget that would be a terrible mistake. Wise words indeed.

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Brighton maker, artist, business woman and entrepreneur Sophie Darling joins us for a fascinating chat about sustainability and slow fashion, describing her creative process and how she creates her signature hand-printed jackets, which are all art pieces in themselves.

Sophie describes how a surprise trip to Mississippi nurtured her creativity when she was young, but that it wasn’t until she’d done a screen-printing course that she found her passion, leading to a hugely successful label Kimchi with her friend Holly Atelier. Now running a creative hub in her Brighton studio, Sophie does workshops and feels passionately about nurturing younger creative talent. Unable to wear rings anymore, Sophie shows us her lovely necklaces. A (possibly Tiffany) silver locket bottle for perfume on a chain gifted by her father to her mother and now has been passed onto Sophie’s daughter. The funny story behind her wedding ring with braille on the outside because ‘Love is Blind’, as well as a beautiful ‘Darling’ necklace, which is a collaboration with a local tattoo artist and self-taught jeweller James Robinson. She says that it’s her resilience, determination and passion that has seen her through. Inspiring, funny, lively and yet very down to earth, Sophie continues to thrive creatively. Find out more on her website, sophiedarling.com, catch her on Insta @sophie_darling_. She runs an open studio once a month and will be part of the open studios in May for Brighton festival.

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