Cecilia A. Herbing was born in Makati Rizal, Philippines. From an early age she loved watching her mother prepare food for the family, and thus began a life-long passion for cooking.

In 2003 she emigrated to the United States with her four children, living in California until late July 2008. During that time she found plenty of scope to master the art of cooking, whilst keeping to a sensible budget and catering the sort of delicious and nutritious food that would please family and friends.

Cecilia’s already cosmopolitan skills and experience were to be further enriched when she subsequently moved to the Isle of Wight, England. She attended a Health and Safety Food Handling Training Course, and soon began selling pancake rolls and other delicacies to Island friends as well as invited them to sample her culinary skills.

Her next venture was to submit recipes to the widely read My Recipes Magazine, published monthly. Several of these were chosen for publication, and by now Cecilia had already started compiling this very personal collection of old, new, borrowed and reinvented dishes – Favourite Recipes.