Annabel's awakening I'VE FINALLY FOUND ME

The foodie fave shares how putting cooking on the backburner has allowed her other pr passions to fl ourish

- Wendyl Nissen

For more than 30 years, Annabel Langbein has been a presence in most Weekly readers’ homes. Her recipe books and television shows have helped us navigate all the major food trends and to cook interesting meals for our families.

But for the past 18 months, Annabel has been on a quest to find herself after so many years as a successful career woman.

“I only have one regret about that time and that was that I worked way too hard and lost me,” shares Annabel. “I paid a price and got really burnt out in my late 30s and I hope my daughter doesn’t work as hard when she has a family.

“I always thought that I could never get off that bus because if you got offit, you might not get back again. I thought that if I lost my financial independence, I would lose my sense of self.”

At the age of 63, she has finally stepped off that bus. She has finally given herself time to find “me”.

“I made the decision after I wrote my memoir, Bella, that I wasn’t going to be in the front anymore, pushing ideas. I found myself feeling that I was really cooked. It has been a huge change for me.”

Annabel has been reading Madeleine Albright’s latest book Hell and Other Destinations, which has resonated with her.

“She wrote something when she was 63, exactly my age – ‘I was intent on making the next stage of my life more exciting than the last.’ I said, ‘Hell, yes’ to that. That’s the energy I’m channeling in my life right now.”