My Life My Message

My earliest memories are centred around food. From my grandmother asking me if I wanted something to eat, everytime I visited, to the long tables for family dinners where everyone was welcome. Food was the way we communicated with each other.

Growing up I wanted to recreate those memories as I longed for more connection and understanding.

My mum was an amazing cook and I remember her always cooking and baking at home in Maastricht. At the time I was only interested in eating food.

My day was centered around that. From a young age I had felt the need to prove myself as I thought that was the way to be popular and have friends.

As faith would have it, at 19, I found myself in a kitchen. Intuitively immediately I knew I could excel at this strange thing they called cheffing.

I became obsessed and always worked in the top-end restaurants to learn my craft and gain knowledge and at 26 I opened my own succesful fine dining restaurant. One evening when the top-chefs of the time came to eat and praised my food, I realised I had nothing to prove. The work was done. I needed to rpove myself in a different way.

I moved my young family to London and started a fine food wholesale business. I loved being in London, it immediately felt like home. This business became very successful too, but something in me shifted.

At 41, in 2007, evolving business ethics clashed with my core values leaving me feeling unfulfilled. I had a life-changing experience that year and I decided to give up my business. It was time to be truly myself. To be just Leon, nothing more and nothing less. I learned I had nothing to prove!

It sounds simple, it is maybe the hardest thing to do in this world which tells us so often what is expected of us.

It has been the most incredible journey and through my life I live my message. Since that early breakthrough experience I have had many challenges and failures. It has, however, also given me the most beautiful life and courage, being able to start the incredible projects which I have started.

Calais Kitchen during the Refugee Crisis and Compassion London during the pandemic. Ample, a business I am involved in saving farm-gate surplus and creating more planetary healt.

I put my stake in the ground during challenge situations and crisis's allowing others to step up too.

WATCH My TEDx Talk: The Power of Sharing a Meal - insights from Calais Refugee Camp]

“Sharing a meal, bringing people around a table, has the power to create more understanding and greater connection.”

In 6 years since the start of the pandemic, the kitchen I started has cooked and distributed close to 6 Million meals for people living in food insecurity.

My belief is a spiritual one underpinned by intuition. I have learned how to act with my heart fully open and to embrace the value of giving back.

Listen to me on Food, Humanity and Hope on Chris's Cooper Podcast.