We met Robert and Jan at the Bristol Harbourside Festival where 91 Ways held a global picnic – chatting around wonderful fresh food donated by local businesses such as The Mint Room in Clifton.

Robert says, “we’ve come from Swansea today, but I have an interesting heritage because my mother is Portuguese.

So I was brought up around typical Portuguese food: salted cod, paella – everyone had a different twist on how they made it. I remember big, lively mealtimes as a child and there was always wine on the table”.

“One of my favourite dishes growing up was calamari, I loved it….but the worst was boiled squid – there were tentacles and everything! I remember one day someone gave us a pigs head, which we boiled!”

Robert’s childhood memories of food have stayed with him through to adulthood, “now I’m a mad chef! I absolutely love cooking, trying new things, and I always buy fresh food.

At home we have a theme night every couple of weeks: last night was Caribbean night, we’ve had Bulgarian, Hungarian….we have about 60-70 cookery books in the kitchen!”

“I’m a bit of a food snob, I’d rather go out for dinner less often and eat well, than those kind of pubs where it’s 2-for-1 and the food is just average”.