About Anna
Anna Colquhoun is a food anthropologist who has worked in kitchens, culinary education, writing, consultancy and research.
Anns has an MA in the Anthropology of Food (2015) and a PhD in Anthropology (2024) from SOAS University of London, where she is now a post-doctoral Research Associate at the Food Studies Centre. Her PhD thesis, Making Local Specialities: Food, Place and Value in Istria, examined the intersections of making food, place and value in this rapidly changing borderland region. Her research interests include the cultural economy and place making, rural and gastronomic tourism, hospitality and cooking, localised and post-socialist food systems.
Anna has lived in the UK and the USA and worked for many years in international development, culinary education, food writing, consultancy and hospitality. She currently lives in Croatia, where she runs a culinary guesthouse called Bolara 60.
In London Anna used to offer cooking classes, including popular bread-making and preserving workshops among others. Her monthly supper club, the Secret Kitchen, which ran from 2010-2017, was a convivial dinner at which people sat together for a surprise seasonal menu.
Books include ‘Food Beyond Terroir’ (Berghahn, 2025), ‘Gather, Cook, Feast’ (Fig Tree, 2017), the ‘Riverford Companion’ seasonal vegetable series (Riverford, 2015), and ‘Eat Slow Britain’ (Sawdays, 2010). She was also the consultant on BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Kitchen Cabinet’ for 10 years, having had the original idea for the show.
Anna trained as a chef in San Francisco and at Alice Waters’ legendary restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, back in 2006-2007.
“Having always loved cooking at home, I finally left my career in international development in 2006 to become a cook. It started in San Francisco. I trained professionally at the Tante Marie Cooking School, took more specialised courses at other schools, including the San Francisco Baking Institute, and worked as an intern at Alice Waters’ legendary restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley. I fell in love with simple, seasonal cooking and making everything from scratch — sausages, pizza, pasta, preserves, you name it … There is more about my experiences in California in Abby Dyson’s interview with me.
A year travelling for culinary research deepened my understanding and love of Turkish, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Moroccan and Senegalese cuisines, among others. You can read more about these culinary adventures here, and find lots of recipes too. Food’s place in history, geography, language, culture and society fascinates me; nutritional analysis and calorie-counting aren’t my thing.”
Who is Matt?
Matt eats very well. He is also a computational linguist who takes time off from the research he usually does for culinary road trips and other adventures. He has contributed much to this website.
Who is Barnaby?
Barnaby is our culinary bear.
