David Maden

I have been a chef for 35 years the past 20 of which I have been a freelance consultant. I began my career in the UK working in fine dining, before branching out and working in the USA and Europe including across the Greek Islands where I had the most influential experience of food. This was all enhanced with a long-term involvement in a modest livestock farm directly supplying the farm butchery and bakery, my experience on the farm including the care and welfare of many free-range breeds.

Most of my freelance consulting and work as a chef has been within the fine dining and luxury country house setting. However in later years I worked within the vulnerable groups sector such as care homes, schools , centres for young adults with severe autism which was incredibly rewarding as I witnessed the improvement that could be made in mood and other symptoms with a simple change in the food available.

This is where it all began, yet I knew nothing about the true power of food , even though I had spent years making tummies smile I had no idea what was really going on until I started to study the connection between food, mood, and mental health. There is now comprehensive scientific research showing that the food we eat is fundamental to our cognitive and psychological health.

My own lived experiences with poor mental health and substance use have helped me to fully appreciate that food is critical to the intervention and repair of physical and emotional problems. This is what drives my passion to combine my expertise as a professional chef with the latest cutting-edge scientific data to help treat and prevent psychological and cognitive health issues.

To truly understand food and the power of cooking, is to care for ourselves.