Four chefs will discuss food and nostalgia, how that plays into their cooking and balancing a wider understanding of cooking. April will talk about running a popular restaurant in Brixton where she brings a modern approach to her cooking, whilst infusing her food with Jamaican inspiration. Shivi will discuss cooking on tv and creating recipes that are accessible to cook at home as well as being exciting, and her upcoming ITV show with Jimmy Doherty.

Shivi Ramoutar

Shivi is a food writer, cookbook author, TV chef and presenter. She can regularly be found cooking on TV, having been the resident TV chef on ITV’s Garraway’s Good Stuff, alongside Kate Garraway and previously the TV chef on ITV’s Martin and Roman’s Weekend Best, alongside Martin and Roman Kemp. Shivi has also stepped in as host on a couple episodes of both of the shows alongside Martin Kemp. She is a regular guest on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and has previously hosted the show as well as a regular on ITV’s This Morning. Shivi has also appeared on BBC’s Mastermind (with her topic of choice being Sex And The City) and Pointless Celebrities, and is due to appear on ITV’s Tipping Point: Lucky Stars.

Shivi has written three cookbooks, her first, Caribbean Modern: Recipes from the Rum Islands, was published by Headline. Her second cookbook, The Ice Kitchen: Fast Fresh Food to Fill Your Family and Your Freezer, was published by HarperCollins. And her third, Cook Clever: One Chop, No Waste, All Taste, is due out at the start of next year, published by HarperCollins.

Shivi has been dubbed by The Guardian as “Caribbean Food Supremo”, and by BA The Club magazine as "Queen of Contemporary Caribbean Cooking". She has shared her unique, fresh and colourful approach to flavoursome Caribbean food across London and the UK, via her supper club, and subsequently through restaurant and brand collaborations and her first book, Caribbean Modern: Recipes From The Rum Islands. She is a Food Hero for P&O Cruises, alongside Marco-Pierre White, José Pizarro, Kjarten Skjelde and Olly Smith, creating a Caribbean-inspired menu for the onboard restaurant. Her journey with food continues with each change in her life, now favouring a thoughtful waste-free approach to food, for the whole family, in whatever sense that can take form, time-saving, low-cost and clever cooking. But without a doubt, she and her recipes still adhere to her original signatures of vibrant colour, bold flavour and tropical touches.

Many moons ago, Shivi was born in Trinidad into a colourful (in all senses of the word) family and brought up between those beloved salty beaches, the grassy Leicestershire countryside (via a brief stint in the Big Apple) and the eclectic buzz of London where she has now settled and calls ‘home’. She left a career in Law to pursue her passion for food. Her favourite past times are tinkling the ivories (her ambition was once to be a classical pianist), writing songs and tap dancing. She lives with her husband, her two little wildlings and a newborn baby in a house of utter chaos.

Shivi will be joining the ITV Weekend Breakfast line up, Co-Presenting Jimmy & Shivi’s Farmhouse Breakfast.

April Jackson

April launched London’s first Caribbean Tapas restaurant, Three Little Birds, in Brixton in 2015 after a stint on BBC’s Apprentice as a way to showcase her culture through warm hospitality, small sharing plates and rum based cocktails. The Jamaican-inspired concept was well received allowing her to open a second location in Clapham Junction just three years later; bringing curry goat, jerk roasted cauliflower and honey-jerk wings to another neighbourhood.

“I’m not a chef, I cook and people pay.”

Having grown up in Jamaica and lived in France and New York, her recipes are influenced by her travels resulting in a unique perspective in the kitchen that challenges ideas of Caribbean food. This self-taught chef, known for her good vibes and fiery character, has been featured on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and at Taste of London delivering live demos. More recently she appears on ITV’s This Morning cooking up the food she loves, which is simple but full of flavour.

Without any experience in hospitality, April went from managing lifestyle events in Jamaica, to owning and operating one of the best Caribbean restaurants in London, catering for weddings and becoming a champion for Jamaican food and drink. She relaunched her Brixton site, post Covid, as Wood & Water and then opened a cocktail bar in Brixton, SideChick, Batanga and ABV, with her partner Lee Tan. April has been proud of Jamaica long before she was crowned Miss Jamaica Universe in 2008 and continues to celebrate her culture at Wood & Water, serving Modern British cuisine with a Jamaican Soul.

Before restaurants, Jackson began sharing recipes via her blog The Yummy Truth then appeared on UK TV screens on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Dirty Secrets of Britain’s Takeaways, BBC’s MasterChef and ITV’s Cooking With The Stars and This Morning. April is the foodie entrepreneur to watch, determined to make inspired Jamaican food a firm fixture on the UK palate. She lives in London with her partner and twin girls.

Elly Curshen

Elly Curshen, also known as @ellypear, is a bestselling cookbook author. Her popular #RolloverLeftovers Instagram series and frequent appearances on radio, online, print, and TV inspire others to cook from scratch and reduce food waste with her bright, inventive pescatarian recipes.

Dr Ronx

Dr Ronx is an award winning trans non binary emergency medicine doctor by profession. On screen they are best known for their role as a presenter on CBBC's Operation Ouch. They describe themself as a queer, black, intersectional feminist. Driven and determined, they self-funded their way through Medical School after leaving home in their teenage years, graduating from Kings College Medical School in 2011.

Dr Ronx faced a challenging upbringing and realises their unique story can help motivate and inspire young people from all walks of life. Dr Ronx is passionate about community, volunteering and giving back as demonstrated by them mentoring Hackney young people, giving presentations in local schools, raising money for various charities and championing young people to feel empowered to achieve.

Dr Ronx has hosted landmark documentaries answering questions facing the nation, such as Are Women The Fitter Sex? and The Truth About Boosting Your Immune System for BBC One, the highly acclaimed Channel 4 investigative documentary Is Covid Racist? and taking their medical expertise onto the streets in The Unshockable Dr Ronx for BBC 3.

In 2023 Ronx presentedThe Bias Diagnosis: Gender Injustice in Healthcare, a podcast series for Audible in which Ronx investigates one of the biggest injustices in modern medicine. They also had their first book published by Harper Collins entitled Amazing Bodies, one of the Little Experts series.

Their motto is “You cannot be, what you do not see”.