my story

The author of this site is Jules Clancy. I’m a food scientist, runner, photographer, writer, [self] published author, and food & wine lover. I live in the Snowy Mountains of Australia with my fiance, a dashing Irishman.

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I grew up on a sheep farm, the eldest of 5 children and was lucky to have a mother who was an inspirational country cook. My love of food developed at an early age but it wasn’t until I went to boarding school and had to make do with convent food that I realised just how special my mum’s cooking was.

When I left school it was an easy decision to study food science at university. After I graduated I landed a job in product development for Kellogg which was great fun. After some soul searching during a year traveling in Europe and Asia, I decided to venture into the world of wine and enrolled in the wine science course at Charles Sturt University.

This lead me on a great adventure making wine in some of the most beautiful places in the world: From the Hunter and Barossa Valleys in Australia, to Sonoma and Los Gatos in California USA to the home of Shiraz – the Rhone Valley in France. I loved my days as a roving winemaker, but I finally came to the realisation that wine is more fun to drink than make and that the world of food is where I really need to be.

So I returned to Sydney and to Kellogg, happy to have a job where there was no requirement for lifting heavy things. And where I could wear pretty shoes with heels everyday rather than soggy winemakers boots. About the same time I discovered food blogs and became hooked. It wasn’t long before I found myself stretching my mediocre computer skills and investing in a digital SLR camera to start stonesoup.

My next job was designing chocolate biscuits and cookies for a living – I know it was tough but someone had to do it. But even a dream job like that is still a ‘job’. So in January 2010 I packed in corporate life to become a full time blogger focusing on Stonesoup. And haven’t looked back.

Recently I self published my first book ‘and the love is free’ – a cookbook that celebrates the beautiful life of my Mum.

I’ve also discovered the philosophy of minimalism, via the brilliant blogger Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame. And it has been my path to minimalism that has inspired a change in what I’m cooking for myself and the recipes that I’m inspired to blog about on stonesoup. I know it sounds a bit new-agey but really it’s all about ‘less is more’. For more on minimalism have a look HERE or minimalist home cooking click HERE.

When I’m not cooking, writing about food or taking photographs [of food] I can be found indulging my passions for long boozy lunches, travel, running, growing my own veggies, cookbooks, boating on Sydney harbour, cheese and red shoes. [OK. all shoes].

You can contact me at jules [at] thestonesoup [dot] com

my [old] place – a room with a view