Anna Stanford

I am Anna Stanford, a self-taught cook and mother of three, and the creator of Anna’s Family Kitchen. I live in Kent with my 3 children (although my eldest is at University), two dogs, 4 cats, a horse, 3 alpacas and a girl band of chickens. It is a source of much amusement to my friends who joke that there is more than a whiff of the Good Life about our house. As a result, family life is noisy, frequently chaotic but never dull.

There were times when the responsibility of catering for five people, who have entirely separate schedules and what feels like mutually exclusive culinary priorities left me feeling swamped. Rewind 7 years and alongside my career in media and marketing, I started sharing on Instagram the achievable family friendly recipes that worked for my family. The recipes had to be adaptable for my resident vegetarian (the rest of the family love meat!) they had to be healthy, nutritious and hearty. They also had to get past my fussier eater. The enjoyment of food has always been a consistent theme of our family life.

What started as a passionate hobby soon became my full time job when I was invited to work with food brands, recipe writing for them. Over the years I have learnt to become adept at working around the various food preferences and look to build in flexibility to my recipes. The days of producing four different meals each evening to satisfy demands, is a thing of the past.

My change of career enabled me to work from home and be with my husband who I lost my husband to cancer in December 2023. All families evolve but losing a husband and the father to your children is something nobody gets used to. But you adapt.

I published my first cook book, Anna's Family Kitchen (navigating through food, faff and family life) in September 2022. It was brilliantly received and has become the go to cookbook for many busy households.

I continue to write recipes that work for my evolving family. Although children fly the nest, they're often back more than you think! And their tastes mature and evolve too.