Following a three year hotel catering course and a successful apprenticeship at the renowned Connaught Hotel, David Green was in the midst of a fervent chef career. However, on the day of his 25th birthday something gate-crashed the party ..the diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes.

Follow the tumultuous journey of an insulin-dependent diabetic professional chef. Learn the challenges, understand the problems and live through all the highs and lows in maintaining day-to-day normality.

See David’s philosophies on Food and Diabetes below.

Accompanied by more than 70 recipes, all created by the author during his chef career spanning 30 years, beginning in London’s Mayfair to Canada, Wales, the Lake District, Norfolk coast and more.

To purchase a copy of this book click here

Featured in the Daily Gazette and the Essex County Standard

 

David’s book is called ‘Happy Birthday!…You’re Diabetic’

By Matt Plummer Community Content Editor (North Essex)
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Listen to David teaching you how to make a sugar free dessert

David Green’s Food Philosophy.

I was born İn Colchester and 16 years later, in 1984, I started what was to be a 3 year catering course at Colchester Institute. At that time, and still is today, Colchester Institute offered one of the best catering educations in the country. I was lucky to have been born İn Colchester! My lecturers there influenced the Connaught hotel enough to enable me to start an apprenticeship. This apprenticeship would prove to be invaluable and serve me well for my entire 30 year catering career.

I have always seen the world as accessible and I have always had a desire to see foreign lands and being a professional chef did not restrict my travels. On the contrary, it facilitated more travel! From London to Bermuda via Devon before I was 23! Then to Ipswich, Canada, Keswick and Wales before returning to Colchester. I appreciated this journey and thought myself to be very lucky to be able to do the job that I love in some of the most beautiful, wonderful and interesting places in the world.

All these places had an influence on my cooking style. During my 30 year career, I was fortunate that “Fusion” style food became popular, which allowed me to create dishes combining influences from different countries with classic, Connaught learned dishes. Also, seasonal and local produce became the “In trend”. This led to regional recipes, with restaurants changing their menus on a weekly, or at least monthly basis.

The recipes I have compiled in this book are a mixture of classic and new. They are all, in my opinion, worthy of their inclusion and illustrate a chef’s skill which he would be proud to serve at any fine dinner party.

My food philosophy is this – Technique, Seasonal, Local and Taste.

David Green’s Diabetic Philosophy.

Anyone who is or knows a diabetic will understand how difficult it can be to maintain a healthy, day-to-day level of blood glucose control. When I was diagnosed 28 years ago, the methods, medication and equipment used to manage diabetes were far less sophisticated than they are today.

I must admit, I was not good. I lost count of the number of times I was admitted to hospital and every time as a result of a serious low blood glucose event. These events were usually caused by either one of two factors; either eating the “wrong” food or not testing my glucose level often enough.

As the years passed, diabetes treatments improved and managing it became “easier” which should result in better control. Now, in 2021, a diabetic has a choice of high-tech gadgets to assist with their glucose control, with the insulin pump offering the ultimate assistance. However, whichever gadget is chosen there are positives and negatives that go with it.

From my experience, I will say that the “best” glucose controls are obtained when the diabetic obeys the basic rules of diabetes…

Eat a balanced, healthy diet, reduce added sugar to a minimum, exercise as much as possible and try to maintain a healthy body weight. “Treats” can be eaten occasionally but beware of the consequences.

I wrote my book with the intention of passing-on information gained from almost 30 years of experience. I want to make people aware that diabetes should not stop a diabetic enjoying life to the full. But.. and this is a big “but”… Diabetes is the master and must always be obeyed. If not, serious consequences will occur.. maybe not immediately, maybe after several months or years but if the basic rules of diabetes are not followed, for sure, consequences will happen. I am living proof of this!

These days, with all the advancements in diabetes treatments, a diabetic should look forward to a long and happy life with minimum problems, at least until later in life.

So my philosophy is this – Eat well, Control well, Live well.