Christelle

Bio (and recent family photos opposite)

I was born in a small seaside town in the north-west of France in 1975 and more or less grew up running on the beach, or rather sea-swimming for half of the year. I moved to Brittany when I was 17 to study electrical and software engineering, and graduated in 1997. In 1998 I moved to the UK with my soon-to-be husband. We lived and worked in Northern England before moving to a small village in North Wales.

In 2002, we made up our minds to explore another part of the world. One look at an atlas was enough for us to decide that New Zealand was everything we were looking for. We settled in Christchurch and became New Zealand citizens in 2006. We have since moved to Oxford, a small rural town 40 minutes west of Christchurch.

Within just four and a half years, we became the parents of four adorable children, Noémie (01/09/2004), Éloïse (15/03/2006), Yohann (7/05/2007) and Émeric (15/03/2009). Our latest (and last!) addition, Melody, was born on 21/08/2011. Mid-2008, shortly before publishing my fourth book in as many years, I temporarily gave up my day job as an embedded software engineer to fully focus on the children and on my food writing.

I went back to software engineering early 2010, working with my husband in our software development company and have since been mainly working as a project manager, software developer and technical translator although I still write a few food & nutrition columns for NZ newspapers and magazines.

After self-publishing my four award-winning cookbooks and selling the translation rights to some of these books, I signed a publishing contract with HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, who published my fifth cookbook in 2010.

I have a passion for swimming, and have been swimming a few kilometers everyday for years which hopefully makes up for my daily consumption of chocolate. I also love playing the piano, biking, reading, playing tennis and tramping.

From software engineer to foodie...

My passion for food likely comes from growing up in France, a food-orientated country well-known for its gastronomy. Indeed, eating well is of prime importance to most French people who are great gourmets and arguably spend an incredible amount of time preparing and consuming food. Drawing inspiration from my mum, I soon took great pleasure myself in cooking and baking for my family and friends.

It was when I returned to work after maternity leave with my first child in January 2005 that I was given the idea turning my hobby into a career that would allow me to spend more time at home. My colleagues were used to my bringing baking into the office and the first day back after maternity leave was no exception. While we were enjoying my baking, a couple of my friends told me that I should write a cookbook. My initial reaction was to laugh off their suggestion - partly because while I knew many people enjoyed my food, I was not a professional; and partly because trying to start up in an industry I didn't know the first thing about seemed a little bit crazy (not to mention that a new baby and a day job would make finding spare time a bit of a challenge).

But I can't resist a good challenge so after thinking about it for half an hour over lunch I decided to give it a go. My books were typically written at night between 7pm and midnight after our increasing number of children were put to bed. Initially, Saturdays were reserved for cooking and baking the dishes to be photographer for the books, with photographer and friend Vanessa Jones taking the pictures on Sundays. However, after Vanessa left for Australia I took private lessons, bought the required equipment and did my own photography for Fresh Start and Five Ways With, which gave me more flexibility.

Although the learning curve was pretty steep as I had to learn as much as possible about the publishing industry I don't regret for a second taking the plunge and learning so much in the process. Thanks to this new career, I got the opportunity to do many things that I wouldn't have in my career as an R&D engineer, such as taking part in many public events, attending a major book fair in Europe, appearing on national TV on several occasions, interviews on radio and in magazines, public speaking, and meeting many interesting people along the way to name just a few. While food writing and engineering are undeniably very different activities, I currently enjoy being able to work in both areas while spending a lot of time after my children.

Charities

New Zealand is a beautiful country and I feel very privileged to have been able to make it my home. Everything we need, and also many things we don't need, are readily available. I felt it was important for us to give something back and got involved with various charities after settling in New Zealand.

Anything that affects children in particular has always been close to my heart. It is even more so now that I am a mum. Many charities do a wonderful job of reaching out to those in need and I am glad to be able to support a few of them.

Here are some links to the websites of the organizations I am or have been involved with: World Vision, Unicef, Starship Foundation, KidsCan, and the Salvation Army. No matter how much you give, you will make a difference to someone's life.

Every little bit helps!

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