The love of food from countries where you can dip your toes into the Med started way back for Ricky M and it was an endless freestyle medley of travelling, holidays, cookery courses and self-tuition that eventually led him to enroll full-time at catering college in the UK to learn how to cook professionally. It wasn’t long before he opened a private dining restaurant where dishes from the Mediterranean took a natural place on the menu; then came outside catering, food writing and eventually cookery tuition. At some point in this culinary adventure Ricky moved to Spain where he began to fine tune his Spanish regional and wider Mediterranean cookery, a labour of love that goes on. Ricky’s never happier than teaching others - visitors, ex-pats, conference groups, children, chefs and restaurateurs - in both Spain and London plus online too.

Yet Ricky M’s professional life has followed two paths that have crossed many times. After graduating Ricky worked in leading London marketing agencies on blue-chip food and drinks brands, soon reaching a senior level and eventually setting up his own specialist restaurant marketing agency. These days his marketing skills sit alongside what he calls his third spell in post 18 education…

“Invariably starting off in an indoor food market - which even after all these years still takes my breath away - and always ending up little more than a pile of tapas plates away from a warm tortilla on a bar, I reckon I’ve cobbled together more than a decent know-how of Spain’s foods, cooking, restaurants and tapas bars. Sure, I’ve absorbed so much in markets and love to pass this on in my market tours and cooking classes, but it’s the tapas bar that’s been the true seat of my post grad practicals where I’ve observed masters of the frying pan showing off every single technical and theatrical movement to produce the perfect tortilla”

Having previously travelled around the country, Ricky M first moved to Spain twenty years ago and from the outset he’s been based on the coast in Catalonia, living a Barcelona-UK-Barcelona lifestyle, spending as much time as possible in the home of sun, sea and squid and “where you never have to suffer an anxiety attack when ordering a coffee”. Ricky’s favourite workdays combo is sharing his skills and know-how with home cooks in Spain, UK and around the world plus offering a unique pair of helping hands (you can say that again!) to Spanish restaurant and tapas bar owners in the UK who recognise the draw of decent Spanish food.

“These days it’s feels good to be confident in the Mediterranean kitchen and to really understand what Spanish dining in and out of the home is all about. Add creativity which has always come in ladlefuls plus inspiration which springs up daily living at the edge of the Med and It has to be a recipe for something good!”