The first Beyond Baked Beans book was published five years ago by Absolute Press in response to my feeling that students were no longer eating the kind of food that you found in the average student cookbook. At least our kids weren't. Like most of their contemporaries they'd travelled a fair bit and eaten out at a variety of different kinds of restaurants so the idea of smothering a can of tuna with a tin of mushroom soup and sprinkling a few smashed up crisps on top didn't really appeal.

The book did far better than we ever could have imagined so was quickly followed by a vegetarian version (Beyond Baked Beans Green) then, in response to the feedback we'd been getting that many students cooked just for themselves, by Beyond Baked Beans Budget.

From the early days we also had a website which enabled me to highlight recipes that were based on produce that was in season. We revamped it last year and been adding to it ever since. This year we launched our own Beyond Baked Beans Student Cooking Page on Facebook on which many of you have uploaded videos, recipes and tips (earning reward points in the process!). We also now have a team of regular student contributors (see below).

We hope the new site will be useful not only to students but others of you who have recently left home or who are struggling to make ends meet. If you'd like to contribute tips and recipes we'd love to hear from you. In the meantime here's a little bit about us:

Fiona Beckett
Fiona has been a student (twice) and has also been on the receiving end of endless calls from her 4 children - which still go on now - about how to cook everthing from mushrooms in a microwave to a Sunday roast. She’s also an award-winning journalist and cookery writer who has written for most of the national press from the People to the Guardian and is currently contributing editor to the wine magazine Decanter. Apart from the Beyond Baked Beans titles she has written 15 other books including The Healthy Lunchbox,  Sausage and Mash and Meat and Two Veg and the shortlly-to-be published The Frugal Cook which also has its own blog. She lives in Bristol.


Kerry Torrens
Keeping us all on the straight and narrow is Kerry Torrens, a qualified Nutritional Therapist who studied at The Institute for Optimum Nutrition, one of the UK's foremost nutritional institutions. She is currently continuing her research with a Masters degree at Middlesex University.
Kerry runs a private practice www.foodlinkfirst.com in Surrey and Hampshire and works with clients of all ages, providing one to one nutrition consultations and advice on a wide range of health issues. She has a special interest in the diet and nutrition of children and young people and is an active representative within the Food for the Brain Schools Campaign.

Signe Johansen
Sig, 28, is our baking queen.  She'll be posting delicious muffin, cakes and breads like her Blueberry Oat Muffins and Yummy Wholemeal Porridge Bread plus some less indulgent options too. A Cambridge graduate and a trained Leith's cook Sig, who is half Norwegian, is now a part-time food and wine writer and has her own blog Scandilicious. This coming year she's doing an MA in food anthropology  at SOAS.

Guy Millon
Guy, 20, is our video star who's (so far) filmed the largest number of recipes He and his girlfriend Claire 'camerawoman' O'Reilly live in Nottingham where Guy is studying psychology.  Guy cooks all kinds of things including the brilliant Duck Cherry Garcia, Spaghetti and Meatballs and Roast Belly Pork with Fennel and Rosemary. Where did he get it from? Well, his dad Marc just happens to be a food writer so he grew up with great food.



James Ramsden
James, 22, who's at Bristol studying French and Italian, is our own Jamie Oliver. He spent last year in Paris and Tuscany (our hearts bleed . . .) so is into all kinds of French and  Italian food, especially home-made pizza and risotto.  He's also done a cooking course at the famous Ballymaloe cookery school in ireland, runs his own catering company The Hungry Caterpillar and has just started a blog with the brilliant title of The Larder Lout


Sous Chefs
We also have a couple of talented contributors who are not yet students but already award-winners and great cooks.

Rebecca Carey
15 year old Rebecca, aka Bex, comes from Cornwall and won the Guild of Food Writers young food writers' competition WriteIt! earlier this year for her piece on 'The Perfect Belgian Waffle'. She's also shot a great video of her favourite chocolate cake recipe which has left the rest of us drooling. We're looking forward to more cake and pudding recipes from her

Will Micklefield
Will, 16, comes from Surrey and has been a finalist in two Guild of Food Writers competitions over the last two successive years. Will's looking like he'll be our Spice Boy. His favourite food to cook is Thai (see his quick and easy Thai Green Chicken Curry) though like James, he's also a fan of Italian food. And of Chelsea though we promise not to hold that against him ;-)