Lucy Robinson divides her time between Cardiff, Wales and the tiny village of Marnaves, Tarn, South-West France. Both places are a haven for fabulous vegetables.

A musician and musicologist by profession, cookery has always been a countermelody in Lucy’s life, alongside being a Francophile since childhood holidays in the Dordogne and Lot –where the evening meal was the focal point of the day.

Since her teens, Lucy has collected local recipes. She is a passionate member of Slow Food, the global grass roots movement that links the delight of good food with a responsibility to community and the environment.

Lucy has cooked vegetable-led meals for over 30 years, always getting pleasure from liaising with a specific local vegetable grower and tracking the seasons through their produce. Originally the grain-free side of it came from Lucy’s severe intolerances to grains. But today research is telling us about how our health is dependent on feeding our gut microbiome a widely-varied diet. So how about delicious Farinata from Liguria and Tuscany, which is traditionally made with chickpea flour, or light and crunchy Buckwheat Crepes from Brittany or Aubergine Skorthalia from the Greek island of Cephalonia (made with an emulsion of ground almonds, potato, garlic, lemon and olive oil) – all to delight our taste buds and our gut microbiome!