Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmitelover launched the underground restaurant movement in the UK with her eponymous supper club via her blog The English Can Cook (marmitelover.blogspot.com). Since then, hundreds of supper clubs have started in London and around the UK, influenced by her book Supper Club: recipes and notes from the underground restaurant, published by Harper Collins in 2011. Her site Find a supper club (supperclubfangroup.ning.com) is the central place for supper clubs to advertise their dates and locations.
A passionate believer in the punk philosophy of DIY but applied to food, she has also innovated The Underground Farmer's Market, to encourage small producers, urban cheesemakers, smokers, bakers, chutney makers, sausage makers, allotmenteers, to create food businesses and sell their wares. Some markets take place at night, incorporate music and a foodie dragon's den, where a panel of experts give advice.
She is part of a new generation of writers and chefs who use social media to promote food via blogging, facebook and twitter. She talks about social media and food at the V & A, the Women's Institute, Editorial Intelligence and Brit Mums Live conference.
This year Kerstin is one of the Young British Foodie award judges for the most irreverent chef. She is also a judge for Editorial Intelligence journalism awards.
Originally Kerstin Rodgers comes from a visual arts background and trained as a photographer (http://www.kerstinrodgers.com/), having had a number of exhibitions as a photographer, in Paris, Chartres and London. Starting out as a teenage photographer at New Musical Express, her work has been published in all the main newspapers and magazines. Her photography library is kept by Getty Images. An exhibition of her rock back catalogue is planned. The hit song 'My girl's mad at me' by Madness was written about her.
I'm available for writing and photographing commissions: get in touch at marmitelover@mac.com. I'm not just interested in food, I also write about travel (I speak fluent French, good Spanish), interior design, politics (I'm left of centre but not a member of any party), film (Ozu and Truffaut big faves), motherhood, feminism and dating.
I also have a restaurant 'review' site: http://theenglishcaneat.blogspot.com/
Harper Collins have just published my first book: Supper Club: recipes and notes from The Underground Restaurant.
