Koi

10/04/2024

First of many birthday meals... 🎉

Thank you

31/10/2023

October 23

🌅Started with clear blue skies on holiday with gorgeous sunsets, and ends with Autumn walks in a rain coat back in Manchester 🍁

Happy Halloween 🎃 hope you're all suitably candied up and on a sugar high! 👻🍬

16/05/2023

My workplace are hiring!

We're a brilliant team doing great things and we are looking for an Income Generation Manager.

Full time (35 hours a week Monday - Friday)

Permanent

£33, 901.87 per year.

Member of Senior Leadership Team.

Home based with meetings at Gorton M18 8PE 2-4 times a month and bi-annual staff events.

Job description: https://www.hmhc.co.uk/vacancies

Online application form: https://forms.office.com/e/XHcZwVmEqm

Please share far and wide with your networks, thanks.

01/05/2023

April: the month of my birthday is always full of catch ups and delicious meals, and this year was no exception 🎉

Post holiday blues was strong this month, so having so much to look forward to and spending time with friends and family was much needed.

🌹Late April has finally seen Spring come to life in my little garden. Flowers are blooming and the plants I relocated cut back severely over the winter are coming back to life. I sowed veg seeds I bought from HK so hoping to grow some new varieties of vegetables this year.

🥦 🌱My work is also looking like an exciting summer ahead, new projects are starting in areas of food and growing... two of my fave things in the world!

03/03/2023

28/01/2023

Self care ❤️

I had a tummy bug so haven't eaten much at all for a few days. So to celebrate feeling better I made myself some lobster with ginger and spring onions. Pak choi and rice noodles underneath.

Followed by lychee. 🐰🧧

27/01/2023

📢 Not for profit caterer in Manchester, hot and cold options available.

🧡 I'm sharing some pictures of the catering orders that just gone out from my team's kitchen. I'm on annual leave from work so all of this gorgeous spread has been their handy work.

🥪 This is only part of an order for 100 people working for Manchester Adult Education Service. They are having a staff training day and asked us to put on a spread of platters, sandwiches, cakes and fruits. Half of the food was omni and half veggie/vegan. All provided in eco friendly packaging.

👩🏼‍🍳 I work for a not for profit social enterprise, Healthy Me Healthy Communities, and we run a Community Cafe and Catering offer from our base in Harpurhey, North Manchester. The Cafe is based inside a mental health wellbeing centre and we offer affordable meals for all types of customers.

🍍All the profits from the catering go towards community projects, like free emergency meals for people in homeless accommodation or unable to afford to pay for gas/electricity to cook at home.

👨🏼‍🍳 My team have been building up the outside catering offer over the last 9 months and I'm so proud of their hard work.

📱If you're company or organisation is looking for an ethical catere in Manchester, give me a shout and I'll share the latest menus with you. We can deliver across the city.

www.hmhc.co.uk for more info

17/01/2023

Gut microbiome 🦠

🔊 I've listened to a couple of pod casts about the importance of maintaining a balanced gut microbiome in the last week. Check .spector on as they go into it in great detail.

🍅🥬 The premise is that by having around 30 different varieties of plants each week, your gut microbiome will get the variety of prebiotics needed to maintain a healthy balance. Prebiotics are the food for the good bacteria present in your digestive system.

🍍🥕 Swipe across to the 3rd pic and you'll see what I've logged in two days. I've already included more than 30 and it's only been two days!

🥜🌰 Herbs, spices, seeds and nuts are all included in the count so if you cook with a variety of herbs and spices and you snack on nuts and seeds then you're already laughing!

🧧I have batch cooked for lunches/weeknight meals so the variety of my meals will not change much over the working week. However it is Lunar New Year this weekend and I'll be eating a shed load of delicious celebratoty foods!

I also want to bring more probiotics into my diet so I've bought some kefir (with live bacteria) and plan to replace my regular tea/coffee at lunch with a miso soup.

I'll keep updating the plant diary and share my results next week 🤗

01/01/2023

🎉 Happy New Year!

Thank you to everyone that's booked a class, ordered catering or recommended my business in the last 12 months.

In 2022 I decided to take a step back from Koi. I've spent more time with friends and family, and been able to concentrate my energy on my day job.

Now I've had some time for reflection I'm looking forward to experimenting more in 2023 with the way forward for Koi, and I'm looking forward to seeing sharing some new content with you soon.

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023! 🙏🏼

27/12/2022

🎄a few food snaps from Christmas 2022. Each year it's become our tradition to each bring a couple of dishes towards the main Christmas meal so it's not all down to one person to cook for a huge group.

🥔So every year I make too many roast potatoes (imagine if there wasn't enough to go around!) and a Fruits of the Forest Yule Log for dessert. 🍒,🍫This year I also roasted a couple of chickens, we don't do turkey! 😬

Boxing Day was a family gathering at mine with everyone baking delicious cakes and making sandwiches out of the leftovers from Xmas Dinner.

It's been a busy few days of cook, eat, repeat!

❤️ I'm incredibly lucky to have my family nearby, with us all getting along so it's always an fun and memorable few days of celebrations. I hope you've enjoyed your festive celebrations if you have been celebrating too.

🎉 No plans for new years celebrations so far, as growing up in the hospitality industry has meant it was always spent working, so these days it's usually a quiet one.

🤔 As with many people, now is a time of reflection on how the past 12 months have been, and what I'd like to achieve in 2023.

Looking forward to sharing more with you in the coming year!

18/12/2022

Final cookery class of the series for in 2022, and for the foreseeable future as I take my attention to other challenges in 2023.

When I decided to begin cookery classes it was to share my love of Chinese food with people who are open to new tastes and experiences. I was able to do this with the long term partnership with the University of Manchester's Confucius Institute.

aims to share Chinese Culture through language classes, arts and cultural activities and shared learning. It's been such a pleasure to work with the amazing team there and see their work make such a difference to people's ideas of Chinese people and our culture.

If you're interested in affordable Mandarin Chinese classes or want to attend some different types of Chinese cultural activities then give their page a follow.

This will be my last post for 2022, so thank you for following the Koi Kitchen journey. I look forward to sharing with you my new kitchen adventures. Wishing you all the best for 2023!🙏🏼

22/08/2022

📢 Service announcement

In short: I've come to the difficult decision to stop taking any more cookery class and catering work.

Long story:
I've been thinking about this for a good 6 months and have slowly been reducing the amount of work I take on. My priorities and personal goals have evolved since I set up Koi Kitchen in March 2016, now it's time to take on new challenges.

I'm now back working full time in the voluntary sector, and running this business at weekends too is massively affecting my ability to self care and be present for my nearest and dearest.

Any work I've got booked in for the rest of 2022 will be honored but I will not be taking on any new contracts until further notice.

🙏🏼 Thanks to every single person that has booked a cookery class, private catering or worked alongside me for the last 6 years. It's been very fulfilling and I've learned so much from every single job and new encounter when sharing my love of East and South East Asian food. I really appreciate all the opportunities, support and repeat business. It's been a wonderful journey and I wouldn't change any of it.

Now is time to take some time out and consider what the next steps are in my personal journey to a peaceful, more equanimous, life. Join me over at if you want to stay in touch, and see what food I'm eating or cooking. I may even find the time to do some cooking videos again!

This may not be the end of Koi Kitchen, so it's just good bye for now! 🥰

02/07/2022

Chinese dumpling making class with 🥟🥟🥟