Only the heart knows how to find what is precious. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Lisa Hayden-Miller

Lisa Hayden-Miller has a passion for food and far horizons.  Most of all, she has a passion for people. 

In the Greek Islands, she ran a gourmet’s galley for Celebrity Charters, serving up the bounties of the Med in rough seas or calm. 

In Spain she was chef/co-owner of Marbella’s popular Pozo Viejo and the very exclusive ‘Upstairs’ Restaurant during which time she also co-hosted ‘The Good Life’ radio magazine program and gave cooking classes both in Spanish and English.

After the 'Pozo', came Hasty Pudding, her catering company, serving exceptional cuisine. She took Hasty Pudding from the Costa del Sol to London and New York, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. 

In her travels, with countless experiences of cruising the Caribbean, crossing the Atlantic to sail the Mediterranean, as well as collecting a wonderful stock-in-trade of authentic and delicious international recipes, she has learned what works and what doesn’t work in a galley. 

Her last book Fondue with Friends was published in London by Powerfresh Ltd. 

Lisa Hayden-Miller is busy working on the second in the Galley Guru series:

Galley Guru - Effortless Gourmet Cooking Anywhere

to be published soon by Paradise Cay

I am never going to give up what I term real food. 

And I am not about to let a little displacement of water change my mind.  By the time I had moved to Spain and found myself running a restaurant there, I had learned to cook in many styles, many languages.  If I have anything to impart on the subject of food, it is that good food is just as easy to cook as bad. While I don’t advocate cooking on horseback or while climbing Everest, I firmly believe that cooking, eating and sharing great gourmet food is possible wherever you are. It is a matter of heart.

In the unlikely event I find myself in a palatial kitchen with an Olympic size central island … and bells and whistles as sophisticated as a Lear jet, well, the recipes in this book work too.  You don’t need to be impoverished or in difficult circumstances to work smart. 

Of Galley Guru, one of my readers remarked, “In reality, the book caters to more than just boaters, as simplicity, substitution, and short prep times appeal to everyone nowadays."

 I have said it before, but it bears repeating, you can’t make good food with bad ingredients.  What makes cooking completely simple, completely foolproof is starting with the right stuff. 

Fish that is fresh smells sweet, not fishy.  Crispness and bright, stunning color are the hallmark of excellent vegetables and herbs:  really red, red peppers, really green greens.  You don’t think all those Cordon Bleu chefs got their reputation by turning lead into gold do you?  This is cooking, not alchemy!