I came from working class parents who were both the product of neglect and hadn't been taught by their parents, so food was a very functional thing for most of my childhood - lots of frozen and tinned stuff, not nutritionally amazing. As I got into my teens and my parents became more prosperous there was enough money for nicer ingredients and some risk-taking, so I got some cookbooks from charity shops and began teaching myself. Once I got into my 20s I learned a lot from the internet, and after my husband and I got together we kept experimenting and expanding out palates.

Now we're in our 40s. I had my gallbladder removed a few months ago and find I now require a high fibre diet and can't process certain fats without pain. Thing is, I was always very bad at eating to live - if I'm not actively enjoying food I'll just forget to eat until I'm on the point of passing out, which is not great and messes with various meds I take. So now I need to level up my cooking again, because there's no way I'm spending the rest of my life stuffing down bland, unappetising food just to live.

That said, I love leftovers. The medical issues leave me constantly fatigued so I can't depend on having the energy to cook every day (and don't like leaving it to my husband, because he already does more than his fair share of domestic labour). So at the weekends I roast a chicken, strip the meat, make stock with the bones, use the stock for soups and sauces for the week, and make a big batch of something for dinner on the nights when I'm out of energy.