My Journey
I’ve always said that the best way to learn a country’s and culture’s history is through its food. I suppose the same could be said about people!
My culinary journey began when I was a child – standing on a dining chair and stirring pots of caramel, or helping to mix sausage roll mince by hand, I was always in the kitchen assisting wherever I could. Every week, my mum would buy Take5 or That’s Life magazines, and I would sit there pouring over the recipes, fascinated, cutting out the ones I wanted to cook. I pasted those recipes into my scrapbook—or rather, a red folder—which, believe it or not, my mum still has!
Food and cooking have always been my life and passion.
When I was in my early twenties, I found out I was celiac. Back then, in the mid-2000s, gluten-free food was not very good. And gluten was in almost everything! Therefore, I had to start reading labels on everything I ate, and I soon realized that, once you remove the preservatives and colourings, most of what we buy pre-made can be made from scratch with ingredients we already have.
And that’s when I really started to cook.
The First Blog
Cooking with Bry is not my first adventure in recipe or food blogging. Back in my mid-twenties, my friends were constantly asking me for my recipes. That’s when a co-worker suggested I start a blog. That sounded easy enough, so I did! It was just for my friends and family, with bad photos, and very little else beyond ingredients and instructions.
Though I always dreamed of doing more—would you believe I wanted to be the next Nigella?!
When I moved to the UK in 2015, I decided to take a break from writing recipes while I settled into my new life. At the same time, I had a lifestyle and beauty blog where I would occasionally share recipes, but my dreams of becoming the next Nigella were largely forgotten.
In 2019, before the world changed with the coronavirus, I was living in Scotland and feeling my desire to cook could no longer be expressed through just a lifestyle blog. That’s when I decided to launch Cooking with Bry to unleash my culinary creativity.
Cooking with Bry
Living in Scotland, the land of almost-always winter, led me to discover my true cooking style and passion – comfort food. Now, not all comfort food is carb-heavy or stodgy. Comfort food brings warmth, happiness, and joy. It gives a serotonin boost and encourages you to sit, relax, and enjoy it.
Here, you will find recipes that bring you joy, warmth, hugs, laughter, and happiness.
As of 2022, I’m back in Brisbane, Australia, the land of almost-always summer. And I still have a love of all things cozy and comfortable. Though I do cook much fewer roast dinners! Nevertheless, my passion for cooking is as strong as it was when I was a kid, stirring that pot of caramel.
About Me
I grew up in Sydney, surrounded by international food influences, and moved to Brisbane when I was 19 years old. During my twenties, I travelled and lived between the two cities. In 2015, at the age of 32, I moved to the UK, spending one year in London before relocating to Glasgow, Scotland. After Covid restrictions eased, I returned to Brisbane in 2022 and now live here with my beautiful cat, Rose.
Besides cooking and entertaining, I love dressing up and have a slight shoe obsession. I work full-time in an office with a corporate career, and enjoy giggling at silly memes… and I probably watch too much TikTok.
I also collect cookbooks with a focus on Christmas recipes! However, to be honest, any cookbook is welcome in my collection.
You can follow my adventures on Instagram!