“Everybody here makes helva but my grandchildren say no one does it like me. They always get upset that I might not be telling them something top-secret in the recipe.'“

“My mother would make tingas de pollo and I loved it so much I’ve been making it for many years. My granddaughters now have also taken a liking to it, so it’s a classic dish I always cook for the family. It’s so simple but very full of flavour and goodness.”

“The secret of good salad dressing is mixing. You should mix your dressing really well before it goes on, rather than dress with each individual ingredient at the end. I love the jammy part of this dressing at the end, when it all comes out. It’s just a little treat on this very healthy dish.”

“In Texas we tweak the traditional Mexican dishes because of the abundance of cattle. There’s so much beef that there’s no escaping it in our cuisine. We still consider this to be Mexican because in spite of growing up in Texas, we were raised Mexican and that means making one small meal go a long way.”

“My husband loved beef stew. It was something he would like if I cooked it all day and the meat would just fall apart. We’re big beef people in Texas. When I was caring for my husband, I’d have to take him to see his cattle every day. Oh boy, he loved his cattle.”

“I’ve been developing a top-secret BBQ sauce recipe for 20 years. I can’t disclose that at all, but you’re welcome to my beans, coleslaw and potato salad. I’ve been here for 23 years. I never cook at home. I just cook at my barbecue smokehouse.”

“I think I learned this recipe from a neighbour, but it must have been way back in the 1950s that I first baked these muffins. I have things in my kitchen that are over 50 years old – my cake mixer, for example. I believe in holding on to things when they work good.”

“I learned to make this back when I was a teenager, from my mother. My momma would put this in an icebox when the summers would be long and hot here. That was before we could afford a refrigerator. It’s no baking necessary and actually one of the easiest desserts to pull together.”

“We make this stew because it makes sense in this part of the world. People come here to Hatteras from all over to fish. I crave a clam and a shrimp more than I ever have a fried pork chop or a hamburger.”

“Where I’m from, we don’t ever serve just one dish. We really lay on a feast for you. This eggplant salad is just a tiny part of a huge feast I would make for guests.”

“I now bring so much back with me from Azerbaijan. It’s so important to have the ingredients I know and love from my home.”

“This is a traditional Jamaican dish that instantly takes me back. It takes me back to that island and to the smells that hit you over the head coming from people’s homes.”

“Most people in Bangkok eat beef and pork Penang but I prefer fish. That’s why I am making you salmon panang. I tested all different kinds of fish like plaice and halibut for this recipe but salmon is the best.”

“This dish is eaten in Hanoi where I’m from as street food. I even did it for my children’s packed lunches at school. The key is to use all the coriander, including the stalks because they hold the most flavour.”

“It was just from watching my mother deliver these incredible feasts on a daily basis that I gleaned my culinary know-how. This dish was one my mother would make often and it reminds me of the home I grew up in.”

“This is a dish I like to make because it’s simple, easy and instantly reminds me of my childhood growing up in Romania. It’s usually something we will eat as a starting dish or as an accompaniment to a main meal and it’s really very typically Romanian.”

“My grandchildren love my arancini. It’s not something you should eat alone - I’m going to ring Viola now and tell her to come over!'“

“Sicilian food is simple but you must treat every ingredient as an individual before you bring or layer them together”.

“My own step-grandchildren love my Gelo di Mellone, which is a Sicilian dessert. I’m Venetian but since I’ve been living here in Sicily for so many years, I learned to cook the traditional Sicilian dishes.”

“I began to make this soup around forty years ago and have been making it ever since. I don’t like noodles with soup or pasta in a broth so I decided to start adding plantain to make my broth more substantial.“

“If you’re cooking this, ensure that your clams, your fish – everything is sourced on the day. There are not a lot of complex spices or herbs, the fresh fish and the shell of the prawns and the clams gives it a lovely taste of the sea”.

“Traditionally the meat is served with NJOKI - potato dumplings - generously sprinkled with hard cheese. This is a basic recipe with a little lemon zest and nutmeg in the mix”.

“I learned to make this dish almost fifty years ago. It was my uncle’s recipe. He was a sailor and had only a few dishes that he could cook really well.”

“I was a teenager when I first made this dish. I went to Bogota in search of a different life and I went on my own.”

“I like keeping my heritage alive here in the UK and eating the food I had when I was a little girl, it takes me back to Hong Kong.”

“The tip of the kitchen in Sicily is cook with feeling - the best cooks can feel how much they need. I respect the precise measurements only when I am making dessert.”

“My grandmother had a lovely garden. But when the war came my mother, who was very practical, took away all her beautiful roses and flowers and instead planted tomatoes, green beans, cabbages, carrots.”

“My family comes from the north of Spain, which is where this recipe comes from. In my hometown of San Sebastian, the ladies of the house were supposed to cook very well, otherwise they were completely disgraced”.

“I’d go with my grandfather, father and siblings to pick berries in the forest. We’d fill two huge pails with wild blueberries, seal them in glass jars and then boil the jars in hot water to make a jam for blueberry pierogis.”