About

Welcome to The Delicate Diner! Here is where you can find out more about me, Samantha Mattocks, aka The Delicate Diner.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my website. Since its inception in March 2016, The Delicate Diner has evolved due to the reduction of my intolerances, combined with my growing passion for sharing the very best produce that my home county of Norfolk has to offer, as well as the British Isle as a whole. We have so much here that is wonderful, and we really do not need to import food when what we grow and produce here is among the best in the world.

I very much believe in fresh, seasonal and local produce, and I spent the early years of this website promoting the many wonderful suppliers that we have here in Norfolk. I truly feel that as a county, we are blessed to have so many individual producers who take the fruits of the land and turn them into something great – from oil and bread to cheese and butter, and even gin and vodka!

A bit about me…

Samantha Mattocks The Delicate Diner The Arabian Magazine Sandstorm MasterChef
I was born and raised on a farm in Norfolk, UK, and thus I have been very lucky to have access to much fresh, local produce all my life. This very much is at the heart of my cooking – local, fresh, seasonal food should be enjoyed all year around. After all, who wants to eat asparagus in December when it has flown all the way from Peru but still looks bright and green and fresh? Certainly not me! I hate to think just how many chemicals have been added to food such as this to transport it around the world and keep it ‘fresh’! And don’t get me started on the food miles…

Between early 2012 and the end of 2016, I was intolerant to wheat – hence starting ‘The Delicate Diner’. The world of ‘Delicate Dining’ has grown considerably in the past few years but for many of us, especially those that suffer Coeliac Disease, it remains a necessity rather than a ‘lifestyle choice’. Since the end of 2016, I have enjoyed having the ‘crunch factor’ back in my diet as wheat no longer seems to affect me in the same way that it did before. However, my long-held intolerance to lactose remains – something that can thankfully be self-managed – as do my allergies to mussels and oranges. Yes, oranges – a migraine trigger, and the worst kind of migraine, too. While I may no longer be avoiding wheat, The Delicate Diner remains – looking for wonderful food in a modern world where quality is often overlooked for economy.

In 2018, I applied for MasterChef and was delighted to have been selected to appear on the programme. You can read about my experiences here. Since then, I have done a number of cooking demos from Quintessentially British Events and also Snellings, a local family-run business whose ethics are very similar to my own. I also ran a charity pop up with two of my fellow MasterChef contestants to raise money for the Boudicca Appeal, and have a further pop ups and supper clubs planned.

The same year that MasterChef aired, I was invited to join Norfolk Online as their food and drink columnist, and I have loved this opportunity to combine my passion for Norfolk with a monthly piece, as well as sharing the odd recipe or two there. I also joined Feast Norfolk Magazine as an Account Manager, thus furthering my Norfolk foodie journey.

2020 was the year that never really happened, but I made the most of lockdown and began the Norfolk Foodie Series and The Delicate Diner Meets… series of interviews. I have many more of these planned, and I am excited to share these with you.

Finally, in 2020 I also realised another dream as I published my debut novel, Sandstorm. You can find out more about that here.

So, in a walnut-sized nutshell, this is me. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Samantha xx

You can contact me by e-mailing sam@thedelicatediner.com

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