Shortly after John’s second birthday, his family relocated to the small village of Pwllmeyric in the Wye Valley in Wales, 1-mile southwest of the historic town of Chepstow. Ever resourceful, she continued to experiment using the cookbooks of Madhur Jaffrey and Ken Hom to help her expand her techniques. Once a month, she would drive to the cities of Newport in Wales or across the Severn Bridge to Bristol in England for the spice and ingredients she needed. Soon, she was marinating ducks, airdrying them with a fan before roasting them whole or making her own chapatis. John grew up immersed in a world of midweek Indian dinners, Chinese banquets when family friends visited and traditional British Sunday roasts.