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Anna Middleton doesn’t hand out worksheets in her classes; she hands out courage.
In East London, South Africa, Anna runs lively, three-hour workshops where ten people gather around a stove, cook three dishes from a single cuisine, and then sit down to eat together. There are no notebooks. Instead, she asks everyone to smell, taste, listen, and learn by doing. It’s cooking as it was meant to be: human, hands-on, and just a little fearless.
Anna’s story started at age twelve, hovering near her mother’s stove and “fixing” family suppers with fresh tomatoes, herbs, or even a splash of wine. When guests arrived and there was no dressing for the braai salad, she whisked one up from oil, vinegar, and spices, creating her first improvised recipe.
Formal culinary school wasn’t possible, so she forged her own path. After a stint in corporate life as a litigation secretary, where she was always the one preparing party food, a candid boss suggested she pursue what truly filled her daydreams. Anna quit, cooked thirteen dishes in a single day, hired a photographer, and burned the photos to a CD as her unconventional CV. The risk paid off. A first chef job in Cape Town led to hotel kitchens and eventually to her own health-focused deli, catering to clients with diabetes and high cholesterol.
Eight years ago, Anna moved to East London for love. She became a private chef and soon opened a teaching venue, where she discovered her real passion: helping people trust themselves in the kitchen.
Her students range from nine-year-olds to grandparents, including domestic workers and nannies who cook for families. In every class, nobody is allowed to take notes. Anna encourages everyone to be present, to learn to sense doneness by aroma, to judge heat by sound, and to season food using instinct. Mistakes aren’t failures; they’re lessons. She jokes, “Fake it till you make it,” and then guides students on how to make it happen.
For Anna, cooking is profoundly personal. As a once-troubled child, the kitchen became her creative outlet. Now, she finds joy in watching other kids soften and focus when their hands meet dough or their noses catch the first bloom of garlic in oil. She believes food can teach resilience, one small, delicious win at a time.
Anna plans workshops intuitively: one week Turkish, the next Indian, and then Korean. She likes to cook dishes for the first time alongside her students because sharing the discovery process keeps her inspired. She returns to Asian flavors often, especially Vietnamese cuisine for its clean freshness. One adorable quirk that remains is while she dislikes the smell of jarred peanut butter, she’s happy to make a satay sauce from scratch.
Anna runs every aspect of her business herself, including classes, content, website, and photography. She relies on anything that saves time without sacrificing authenticity. After each workshop, she now sends students her written recipes using Chefadora, which neatly formats and shares them for easy access later. That turned the sticky “Can you WhatsApp me that method again?” moment into a single, shareable link.
Check Out Chef Anna's recipes.
Running a health deli taught Anna that “healthy” isn’t about celery sticks or sacrifice; it’s about education and access. In both her classes and conversations, she gently nudges families to make better choices without shame. She shares practical advice on swapping ingredients, stretching budgets, or making veggie dishes kids will genuinely request. Anna is especially invested in explaining food options for conditions like diabetes and supporting neurodiverse kids with calming, sensory-aware cooking.
Anna’s plans for the future are ambitious:
Students arrive for pad thai or a Greek wrap but leave with something far more valuable: confidence. Anna’s talent isn’t just in crafting great food; she brings a sense of calm and assurance to every class. She shows people that curiosity, a good nose, and a sense of taste are all they need. Dinner doesn’t have to be exact to be excellent.
Explore Anna’s latest recipes on Chefadora; if East London is nearby, consider joining her next workshop. Expect to learn a cuisine, maybe a knife skill, but mostly you’ll learn to trust yourself. That’s what truly changes everything.
Updated on 21 Jan 2026
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