Hello, I am Negla from Sudan. My grandmother taught me to cook (my mother died when I was 15 years old) when I got married age 19 – she explained to me it’s very important to be able to cook for your husband. But even then I didn’t take much interest in cooking because my auntie and sisters always did the cooking at home.

Then 10 years ago my family and I were forced to leave Sudan because of the war and we arrived to the UK as refugees. We didn’t have my sisters around anymore so I had to start cooking for my family. It was the first time I had properly cooked for my husband. I have 3 daughters and one son. They liked my cooking a lot. I started to to try lots of different dishes and then I realised I was an amazing cook.