At home with content creator and former chef at the Connaught under Angela Hartnett’s during her years as head chef at the restaurant.

Drawing on his childhood experiences, growing up in his dad and godfather’s restaurants, Isaac shoots and produces approachable, Italian & travel centred cooking content at home in West London.

How does cooking off camera differ from cooking whilst filming content? Do you feel it’s a different experience?

Cooking off camera is definitely more instinctive and relaxed, I can put some music on, cook by feel and change the recipe halfway through without having to explain everything or stopping and starting all the time to change an angle of the camera.

When I’m filming, I’m thinking about making sure the food is right, but also explaining the process, considering the camera angles and making the recipe easy for someone to follow at home. It naturally takes longer and requires a bit more attention than just cooking for the soul.

I enjoy both for different reasons. Cooking off camera feels more personal and therapeutic, whereas filming allows me to share the experience and hopefully give people the confidence to recreate the food themselves.

How do you balance health and fitness with cooking both in professional kitchens and producing content at home?

For me, it’s about having a realistic balance. I love comforting, indulgent food, so I’m never going to pretend I only eat grilled chicken and salad. At the same time, I know how much better I feel when I’m training consistently, staying hydrated and eating well most of the time.

Working in kitchens is physically demanding, but I still like to make time for proper training. I try to work out in the gym at least 4 times a week, a few swims and run about 35-60km per week. I'll also add in quite a few sauna sessions in as well.

I don’t really believe in labelling food as good or bad. There’s room for both a salad and the burger, it’s the overall balance that matters. Food is pleasure, but also, on a health and fitness level, it's calories in, calories out.

How did your upbringing influence your cooking style?

Home cooking and professional kitchens were a big part of my upbringing. My dad and my godfather both had restaurants. The food was more modern European, with quite a strong French influence, so I guess I went in a little bit of a different direction with my love for Italian and fresh pasta.

Being around that from a young age gave me an appreciation for classical techniques, good ingredients, and the discipline involved in working in a kitchen. It taught me that the finished dish is only one part of cooking; there’s also the preparation, organisation and attention to detail behind it.

That background still comes through in the way I cook now. I like food to feel considered and well executed, but not overly complicated or inaccessible. My love of Italian cooking developed separately, later in my career and through my own experiences.

How does travel influence your recipe development, do you often come back from a holiday or trip with new ideas?

Travel is one of my biggest sources of inspiration. I’m always interested in what people are eating, how they shop, the ingredients they use.

Quite often, it isn’t an elaborate restaurant dish that stays with me. It might be something really simple that tastes completely different because of the quality of the produce, the way it was cooked or the setting in which it was eaten.

I normally come home with a flavour or an ingredient in my head rather than wanting to copy a dish exactly. I’ll then develop it in my own way, using ingredients people can realistically find at home while still trying to capture some of the feeling of the place that inspired it.