Emmylou Maccarthy - Confidence in the Kitchen: How to Feed Your Family, Wow Your Guests and Master the Perfect Red Lip!

To each and every one of you. You may open this book and put it back down again, or you may buy the book and dog-ear the pages, letting it beco me a part of your daily cooking. No matter who you are or what you do with this book, just remember you matter . xx

How to FEED Y OUR F AMIL Y , WOW YOUR GU ESTS and MASTER THE PERFECT RED LIP!

HELLO !

Quick croissants E M M Y L O U S L I F E H A C K S

If youre r eading this, you may be someone who is alr eady part of my online tribe, in which case, thank you for your ongoing support and belief in me! I cannot express how grateful am for o oldnt e ale to spend m life liin ot m passions and denitel wouldnt be here writing this book if it wasn t f or you. If youve never met me, thank you for picking up this book. Let me introduce myself. I am a producer , presenter and fashion stylist with a passion for body positivity and helping people to lie their most ondent lies am also a mm and partner and share m whole life as honestly and openly as I possibly can via Instagram Stories. The members of my online community are my biggest supporters and ar e with me every step of the way . I feel incredibly grateful to be able to be so unapologetically myself and shar e things that inspire me and that I know will make the lives of my tribe a little bit easier . I have produced and presented many events, as well as my own television show , appeared at food festivals sharing my easy entertaining ideas, and given keynote speeches at conferences on self ondene and liin or est life My passion for food and cooking set in when I was very young. My mum is a Vietnamese immigrant who came to raise a family in Australia after the war . She found connection and community through sharing her food and cultur e and this has had a powerful impact on my life. I spent my childhood cooking alongside her , learning both modern and traditional tehnies, rin ot ho to alane aors and disoerin the o of sharin homemade food with the people you love. Mum cooked from a huge collection of r ecipe books, including traditional Vietnamese books as well as the classic Women s Weekly cookbooks that many of my friends mums also had. She collected recipes clipped fr om magazines in doctors waiting r ooms and was always excited to try new , creative dishes fr om all over the world. It was inspiring to see her enthusiasm for new foods and I always loved watching her create meals that looked and smelled lorios and that seemed to hae the poer to oerome onits and rin or family together around the dinner table. She as and is a manient entertainer , rinin toether friends to hae fn, share food and make memories. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of watching my mum play tennis at the local club. She would prepar e a killer tray of sandwiches for the ladies to eno and she eame part of a losenit ommnit throh sharin her loe of food and sport. It was inspiring watching her , a Vietnamese woman in Australia (at a time when Vietnam was less than popular with many westerners), connect and make close friends by , ironically , sharing her culture. father , the son of an rish adentrer , ho re p in ena, also had a r eat inene on me. He shared his love of music (the sound track to my young life was a r etro m ix of Jimi Hendrix, Paul Simon, Nina Simone, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and, as I got older , The Red Hot Chilli Peppers), appetite for adventure and travel and his r espect for discipline and hard or, deeloped thr oh his man ears of martial arts s a seondder ee la elt in tae on do, he as the rihthand man of the l fonder , r Shimoo im, a orean leend in the tae on do orld r im ilt a stron ommnit ho enoed atherin for parties and, more often than not, those ettoethers too plae at or hose My siblings and I would sit at the window and watch with excitement as the cars arrived. he old par on the street, natr e strip, anher e the old t, and families old HELLO!

walk in with kids and eskies in tow . The parties were always BYO drinks and meats and mum would make all the salads. Mum would ask everyone to bring a small fruit salad as well, which was a great trick of hers she would get all the fruit salads and mix them up in one big bowl, making an exotic and glorious fruit medley that she served with ice cream and whipped cream. I would gather all the kids together and or ganise plays and shows that we old present to or par ents r anisin falos performanes for people to eno as m thing back then and it still is today . These parties were known for going well into the night and they wer e, without a doubt, where my love of community and passion for entertaining originated. Like my mum, I use food to bring people together and share the love I have for family . I have written this book to rin toether m mostreested r eipes, hints and tips to mae it easier to oo for or family and friends. I share some delicious weeknight meals (that your kids will actually eat!), make it simple for you to wow your friends with impressive (but super easy) dishes and show you how to create an epic grazing table for your next party . Some of these recipes could be described as kitsch. Yo u know the ones Im talking about cobb loaf, sausage rolls, potato salad. But these recipes have stood the test of time for a r eason theyr e bloody delicious! I want you to walk into that barbecue with your head (and cobb loaf!) held high. Be proud! e ondent Cooin shold e fn, t it shold also ome from the heart ant o to fall in love with entertaining, and I hope these recipes help make that happen. Perhaps you picked up this book because you are looking for simple, delicious recipes, or mae o need some ideas on ho to thro a dinner part ith fn and air Whateer your reason, I hope you absolutely love it. If you do, please shar e it on Insta and tag me as I LOVE hearing from my tribe! Le Eylou x x x HELLO!