About the Chef
During the start of the Pandemic in 2020 when panic and fear gripped the world and we were all locked indoors not sure what to do, Megshaw’s Kitchen was born. I started creating food recipes and posted them weekly on my YouTube Channel, Megshaw's Kitchen. This was the creative side of me that I had always pushed to the side. I was too busy working my regular 9 to 5 job and had convinced myself that I'll never have time to create and upload my recipe videos, let alone, have the time to respond to every single comment or questions the viewers may ask about my recipes.
The Pandemic thought me a great life lesson, to "STOP" and re-evaluate my life. I had much time to suddenly begin creating this dream that I had long pushed aside. That is, Creating and sharing my beloved food recipes to the world.
I am Margaret Henshaw. Born and raised in Nigeria, then my family moved to England when I was just in my early teens. This has influenced my love for a mixed variety of food and my love for baking breads. A lot of flavourful breads.
I enjoy combining my traditional Nigerian food which I grew up to love, as well as all the continental dishes I’ve adopted over the past 20 years, living in the UK. I hope you enjoy this food-love journey with me.
I film, edit and come up with all the recipe ideas - all by myself right from my kitchen.
How it all Began
My love for cooking started at a very young age. My beloved Grandma was the Head-Chef in a private collage back home in Calabar where I was born. Grandma would always cook the most incredible dishes when she comes home and I was always so fascinated watching her make some seriously delicious meals with whatever little ingredients she had brought home from work. This is when I started learning about food and the magic of combining simple ingredients to create spectacular dishes.
When I moved to London with my family in my early teens, about 20 years ago, I discovered the sudden culture-shock in terms of food and lifestyle. All the traditional ingredients my grand mother had trained me to cook with, was no where to be found in the very modern city of London. So, I learnt to adapt.
I started watching British cooking shows on Food Network, this is when my love for European food and baking began. I started to merge certain vegetables that I'd never tried before, to make my traditional Nigerian stews. For instance, I used Spinach instead of the traditional water-leaves, to make my traditional Calabar Afang Soup. I was so fascinated by how well this combo worked that it pushed me to begin what I call my Afro-British Cuisines.
Family
I have two amazing teenage children who are my greatest achievement and pride in life. They both inspire me to be better and to want more out of life. My children are my biggest supporters as well as my hardest critiques. They taste every single recipe I come up with and they are not afraid to say what's right or what can be improved about my recipes. In other-words, they give me the seal of approval before I can post any of my recipes on my YouTube Channel.
I Love to Make Breads
I absolutely love to make my own breads at home. I develop lots of flavourful bread recipes which my family absolutely enjoys. These bread recipes are usually uploaded to my ever growing YouTube Channel, Megshaw's Kitchen.
I've recently started writing my first cookbook titled "30 Ways To Make Bread" which I plan on completing and publishing by the 1st quarter of 2024.