About Clare

Since 2012, I’ve been creating food full of love on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. My cooking is relaxed, generous, and designed to delight both guests and hosts, whether for an intimate dinner or a lively celebration.

Food has always been my first love—eating it, buying it, photographing it, reading and writing about it. That passion began early, at lunches cooked every Sunday by my Grandma. Sometimes I’d pick mint from behind the greenhouse for roast lamb; other times, I was handed the enormous wooden spoon to stir bread sauce for roast chicken. In the garden with my Grandpa, I helped dig potatoes and pick beans, berries, tomatoes, and apples. Family day trips meant picnics and stops for peppery pasties, crumbly flapjacks, and sky-high knickerbocker glories.

At university, I started cooking in earnest—big pots of soups, curries, and pasta sauces, frozen into student-sized portions. I shopped for the freshest produce at Glasgow’s Roots Fruits and Flowers and loved hosting dinner parties for friends, however improvised the kitchen or cutlery.

After graduating, I spent three winters cooking in ski chalets in the French Alps and summers catering for families in Scotland, preparing game and seafood straight from the source. One summer near the Isle of Skye, I finished cooking mussels on a camping gas ring by candlelight when the water-powered electricity went out—an early lesson in staying calm under pressure.

In 2005, I moved to Australia and formalised my freelance cooking, gaining my chef’s qualification while working at the stunning Pilu at Freshwater and learning lessons in Italian cuisine and kitchen life. In 2008, I opened my own café, Jammy Cow, which I ran for five years, inventing the hippie roll and perfecting passionfruit cakes.

Est. 2012: Chef by the Sea
In 2012, I launched Chef by the Sea, a boutique catering service on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Over more than a decade, I’ve developed a reputation for creating food that delights guests while making every event seamless and effortless for hosts. From intimate family dinners to larger celebrations, my approach combines creativity, attention to detail, and calm professionalism—always infused with love. The food itself carries that love, and it’s what makes every dish memorable.

Food Philosophy

Cooking, for me, is a deeply creative pursuit. I love starting with a set of ingredients and transforming them into a complete dish—a process full of nuance, experimentation, and delight. A small change in quantity or temperature can completely alter a dish, and that constant learning is part of the joy.

My approach to food is relaxed and family-centred. I believe it should be served in abundance, whether around a table or on a simple picnic rug, where everyone can help themselves and enjoy the experience. Food has a remarkable ability to bring people together—through shared meals, conversation, and the simple pleasures of tasting, smelling, and savouring.

At the heart of everything I cook are real, high-quality ingredients: sea salt, pasture-raised eggs, extra virgin olive oil, sourdough bread, farmers’ market produce, artisanal cheeses, sustainable seafood, well-raised meat, local honey, fresh herbs. Combined with time, patience, and love, these ingredients allow me to create dishes that delight guests and give hosts confidence that every detail is handled.