Pasta aficionado Rachel Roddy’s latest cookbook, An A To Z Of Pasta, is full of comforting recipes and ideas, but what foods have shaped her own life?

We found out more about Roddy’s culinary journey…

Her earliest food memory is…

“I say that I can remember having Farex, which is a baby porridge. But my mum says she doesn’t think so – maybe I can remember my brother and sister having [something similar]. I remember my mum made really good tapioca or semolina – those soft, pappy foods some people don’t like at all, but I love them. I also have a very, very early memory of having a Tunnock’s Teacake and of sucking the marshmallow out without breaking the chocolate.”

Roddy’s worst food disasters include…

“Oh, God, so many, so many, so many. There’s been loads of disappointments, even the other day I made spaghetti vongole for people that mattered and I had forgotten to soak them [the clams]. So it was really gritty. And not only could I hear my own sandy mouth, I could hear other people’s. I was like, geez, it’s really unpleasant.

“Once I did this braised beef. And I did it really, really carefully. It was a warm day and I just left it sitting there – and it sort of fermented. And I don’t know why, but I served it. It was just awful. It was so upsetting. And normally people can finish things, can’t they? But they couldn’t.”

Her culinary high is…

“I think braised vegetables – cooking for the family and making things I think are really delicious, really good tasting – it’s not even really me, is it? It’s the bloody vegetables! But making things that taste good – that’s such a thrill.

“I get nice highs, I made profiteroles for the first time last year for my son and that was so much fun.

“I think like all of us, I get great pleasure from cooking, and great pleasure from other people’s reactions to cooking, and great pleasure from other people’s cooking. I love being cooked for.”

An A-Z Of Pasta: Stories, Shapes, Sauces, Recipes by Rachel Roddy is published by Fig Tree, priced £25. Photography by Jonathan Lovekin. Available now.