Summer Food with M&S and Jane Devonshire

M&S is well known for its incredible food and adverts that make your mouth water instantly. There's no such thing as boring food when it comes to Marks' and they could even make a loaf of bread look like the best you've ever seen. In addition to this they always manage to come up with new flavours and ideas that we can enjoy each season. To celebrate the launch of their brand new summer range, me and the Southampton Bloggers girlies went down to meet Jane Devonshire, Masterchef winner in 2016, to talk about her new book and try the new range.

Some of you may be thinking what has the Hampshire based chef Jane got to do with M&S? Well she entered their rally to come up with the Best Ever Burger for the summer and created her own masterpiece recipe, so lets just say she's in with the crew!

I chatted to her about her brand new book coming out, with ALL Gluten Free recipes from her family experiences cooking for her son. She found that he sometimes didn't even get invited to children parties because they didn't know what food to make, so took it upon herself to educate the masses. There's even Gluten Free donuts in her book!

At home it became really, really important that I cooked meals that everybody could eat.

"I didn't cook gluten free on Masterchef because I'm not gluten free, I'm not celiac, I did it for me. I do eat mainly gluten free as I see it as healthier but if I go out I do love a good pizza. It's nice to have it as a treat! Everyone was asking, when you do your book what are you going to do? And I thought hmmm well I don't want to just do something for the sake of it. And I think it has to mean something to people who want too buy that book as well as me, they have to understand why you're doing it, not just another book.

So it took me a while, and then I started writing a gluten free book, sort of tongue in cheek about it, and then the wonderful thing was that celiac UK heard the story and knew I wasn't just jumping on a bandwagon, so for their 50th anniversary they endorsed the book! They are a fantastic charity and they do so much good, they are just a small charity. I like working with smaller charities."

So what do you think you'll do next? Any other books or shows?

"I'd love to do another book, even though I found the process quite hard to be honest as I'm used to just adding ingredients as I go and not having to remember what I put in! So I had to go back and rewrite things often but I really enjoyed it. Everybody wants to have their own show, and of course I would jump at the chance if I was given it but the realism has to be set in and I am in a niche market as I do do gluten free food. I'd love to do a YouTube channel, but I'm so technically inane I would have no idea how to do it! I never even had a Twitter account before I won Masterchef!"

As well as chatting to Jane, we got to try the new Summer range and there was so much yummy food I had to roll out of there .....

The different meats and crackers tasted like perfect picnic food, and the olives just disappeared..... into my mouth! Of course there was an endless supply of classic Percy Pigs, as well as their new tiny little fruity meringue tarts. There was also an array of cheeses we all flocked to taste, with chilli and seaweed making an appearance in some!

The M&S food never fails to disappoint and we had a great time trying it all and chatting about what we liked the best! Get down to Marks & Spencer this Summer for all of your picnic and food needs!

Pre-order Jane's book on Amazon here: www.amazon.co.uk/Hassle-Free-Gluten-delicious-gluten-free/dp/1472957490

Visit the M&S website here: www.marksandspencer.com