Name: Philippa O'Shea
Occupation: Call centre worker by day, aspiring cook and culinary explorer by night

1. One food item you can not live without?
Fungus in all shapes, sizes and colours

2. Finish this sentence: "In the kitchen I am…"
…master of the universe

3. Best thing about living in Melbourne?
Learning new things about the place and having it feel more like home each day

4. If you were a vegetable what would you be?
Can I be a legume? I'd be a chick pea – small, power packed and good in everything

5. Best thing about being vegan?
The fact that I'm now more adventurous and creative in my food consumption than i was when I was a 'normie'

6. What are you currently reading?
Oldest living confederate widow tells all by Allan Gurganus. and about a dozen zines including vegan cook zine Fire and Ice

7. Who would you like to trade places with for a day?
Someone in Newcastle, NSW, so I could have a backyard bbq with all my friends and old housemates

8. What would be the title of your autobiography?
Let her eat cake or 101 Tales of Pip, Pip, Pip and the Pip-Pips

9. Favourite place to have a meal?
A warm and friendly kitchen or Trippy Taco in Fitzroy, Au Lac in Canberra and Nosh in Newcastle

10. One thing that would make the world a better place?
If more people realised that most of the things they're told to think are important don't really matter that much, and most of the things they think they need to be happy won't make them so.

I have a food blog that documents the vegan meals I make, and the restaurants I go to. I love my blog because it combines three of my favourite activities – eating, cooking and writing. I've produced a few zines, including one that documented my unforgettable work experience at Zoo magazine, and I'm planning on compiling a cook zine soon. I would love to someday get paid to cook food and bake for other people. Occasionally I have been known to make music, and am working on a solo thing at the moment where I sing short songs and accompany myself on instruments I can't play. Right this second I have a banana cake in the oven – when that's done my caramelised onion and pumpkin pizza with walnut and basil pesto needs to go in.

Blog | Music