An Inspirational Woman – and a Great Chef!

Here at the Museum, we’re delighted to have nominated Romy Gill for an exhibition called ‘Inspiring Women: the Legacy of the First World War in South Gloucestershire’.

The exhibition, organised by South Gloucestershire Council, highlights inspiring women in South Gloucestershire from the First World War to the present day.

Romy (of Romy’s Kitchen in Castle Street, Thornbury) is one of the few female Indian head chef/restaurant owners in the UK.   Growing up in West Bengal, she experienced lots of different kinds of cooking, which drew on Punjabi, West Bengali, Gujarati and south Indian traditions.  When she moved to the UK in 1994, she left behind friends, family and all the food she loved to eat.  But she made new friends and embraced new tastes and new ingredients, blending them with ones she knew from home.

In 2013, she opened her Thornbury restaurant.

As well as cooking and running her restaurant, Romy now also writes for national newspapers and food magazines and appears on radio and TV. She has written articles for The Guardian, The Observer, The Telegraph and The Independent. She has been a judge for BBC Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards and she’s been on Saturday Live, BBC Woman’s Hour, BBC Asian Network and 5Live, as well as appearing on Masterchef and with the Hairy Bikers.

She was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s 90th birthday honours list in 2016.

She absolutely loves trying new things and is currently working on her first cookery book.  We think she’s truly inspirational!

You can see an article about Romy in this week’s Thornbury Gazette.