Woodruffs Organic Café

Born and bred in a small rural town in New Hampshire USA, from a line of traditional home cooks, Erin’s awareness of cooking began before she could walk, banging pots and pans instead of toys while watching her Mum in the kitchen.

She began exploring the world of whole foods by converting old family favourites, although her first encounter with cooking for the masses was in Oregon USA, after discovering a deep rooted passion for travel as well as cooking.

In Oregon she volunteered with Food Not Bombs (www.foodnotbombs.net ») a grass roots movement that shares free vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world every week, to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment.

She thrived on the challenge of creating a meal out of 20 pounds of potatoes, red peppers and tofu, or what ever happened to be donated. Soon the word got out and the queues began to form on the days she was serving up.

After much trial and a little error, Erin started her first culinary job at ‘The Sweet Lilac Deli‘, a take away deli at a small health food co-op in Vermont. This gave her the urge to learn more, so she packed up her pick-up truck and old faithful dog and moved across the states to sunny California, to attend a not-so-traditional cooking school Bauman College (www.baumancollege.org ») focusing on therapeutic healing through whole foods.

After completing the culinary program, Erin and partners opened award winning ‘Sparks‘, serving electrifying organic vegetarian fare in Sonoma County, California, USA. Now, with over 10 years of professional whole foods based vegetarian cooking under her belt, Erin has made Stroud, England her home and Woodruffs her pride and joy.