I had to teach myself to love food again

Following the death of his mother, chef Ryan Riley opened a cookery school for people with cancer. 

- KATIE WRIGHT

CHEF and food writer Ryan Riley says it's been "incredibly hard" forging a successful career while grieving his mother, who died of cancer when Ryan was 20.

The Sunderland-born foodie enrolled on a catering course shortly after his mum passed away but dropped out after one term and decided to pursue food writing instead.

While interning at Sainsbury's Magazine he had a lightbulb moment inspired by his mother's experience of losing her sense of taste while going through chemotherapy. Together with childhood friend Kimberley Duke, he set up Life Kitchen, a not-for-profit cookery school for cancer patients, which opened in 2019.

"I've literally spent the last six years of my life talking about my mother's death every single day and being around cancer patients, which is incredibly rewarding, but incredibly hard," says Ryan, 30, on a video call from home. "I ended up becoming friends with some of the people who've come to the classes over the years and they've sadly died. I'm 30 years old and I've been to 50 funerals."