It was just as Michelle, food historian and ex-caterer with five historical cookbooks to her name, was starting work on a major history of English food, that her eighteen month old son, Jonathan and his father, were diagnosed with a dairy intolerance.

This was in 1987 and in 1987 the alternatives for those on dairy free diets were few and far between. So, some months of experimentation later, Michelle launched Berrydales Special Ices, soya based ices which were dairy free and additive free - and tasted delicious. A year later, a range of vegetarian ready meals followed, all dairy free, gluten free and egg free, and a year after that a range of dairy free chocolates. But this was very early days in the free-from market and although both wholesalers and supermarkets were very supportive, Michelle could not sell enough of her products for them to be economically viable.

Meanwhile she had started a newsletter, – The Inside Story, – about food allergy and food intolerance. The newsletter was very popular and by 1995 it was going, as a free quarterly magazine, to over 35,000 health professionals.

However, in the 1990s financing that large a free circulation by food allergy and food intolerance advertising alone was a struggle so, in 2000 The Inside Story, re-named Foods Matter, became a subscription magazine supporting anyone with a food allergy, a food intolerance or living on a free-from diet.

In January 2010 the Foods Matter magazine ws subsumed into the Food Matter site – which continues to grow literally day by day.

Apart from running foodsmatter.com, Michelle has continued to broadcast, lecture and write books on food allergy and food intolerance and on historic food. For a full list, see below.

Meanwhile... Jonathan, the dairy intolerant toddler, has grown into a strapping, extremely sporty 24 year old –- who still hates milk!

Michelle's books

The Everyday Wheat, gluten and dairy free cookbook 2010
Allergy Catering Manual 2005
Allergy Aware Schools Catering Manual 2005
Eat to beat high blood pressure - with dr Sarah Brewer 2003
British Museum Book of Festive Feasts 2003
Eat to Beat IBS - with Dr Sarah Brewer 2002
The Arthritis Cookbook 2000
Food Fit for Pharaohs 1999
The Diabetic Cookbook 1998
Everyday Wheat-free and gluten-free cookbook 1998
Sainsbury's Special Diet Cookbook 1995
Berrydale Bear and the Cacao Tree 1993
Berrydale Bear meets Chocosaurus the Dinosaur 1993
Cook it Yourself - with Anne Davies 1993
Berrydales Special Diet Cookbook 1992
The Victorian Cookbook 1989
British Museum Cookbook 1987
Cook For Hire 1986
The Freezer Companion 1986
LBC Cookbook 1985
Pepys at Table 1984
The Food Repair Handbook 1984
Little Pepper Book 1983
Olde English Recipes 1981
Sainsbury's Quick Meals 1980