08 May, 2015
Food consultants, cooks, best-selling authors and champions of wellness, we doubt that Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley will be new to you. Since the release of their bestselling cookbook The Art of Eating Well last summer, this picturesque pair has been dominating the healthy living world one magazine cover at a time. The sisters began as food consultants in 2010, advising private clients exactly what to eat to stay svelte and energetic. After beginning a blog, the two were picked up by Vogue.co.uk, where they launched a column and swiftly became household names.
Simply, the Hemsley's believe in living well, and their approach is just as refreshing as we'd expected. "We are moving into more mindful times," Jasmine tells us. "We realise now that money and power don't necessarily bring happiness. Part of being human is just chilling out and looking after yourself."
Times are changing. People are realising that wellness begins with eating right.
This philosophy, one that champions unprocessed, seasonal food, is the essence at the heart of The Art of Eating Well. The book melds their eating philosophy with wholesome, delicious recipes. Think pho, frittatas, dal, and a whole lot of courgetti (a term which, incidentally, they coined themselves).
"We are all able to cook," Melissa says, "It's a vital part of our survival. It's in us all, we just need a little push!" Rather than substituting flavour for flat stomachs, The Art of Eating Well brims with inventive, nutritious food that satisfies even the most unstoppable gluttons of the world. Take it from us.
We dropped by at Melissa's Stockwell flat, where the pair had just wrapped up a shoot for Glamour Magazine and were looking suitably glamorous. With Nelly the face-licking dog clambering all over them, we nestled down with the sisters who are making wholesome living altogether more attractive. "We were raised in a house of home cooking," they tell us. "We were taught not to waste, to eat our greens and to try lots of different things. We're not 'foodies' in the fancy sense. We just enjoy a good meal. In the truest sense of the word."
With their glossy hair and clear-as-a-whistle complexions, Jasmine and Melissa are fast becoming the poster girls of modern eating. "There will be a day when we laugh at what we used to eat. We'll be shocked about the things we once put in our bodies," Jasmine tells us. "We've been conned in to the idea that a calorie is a calorie, that a protein is a protein. Everything's been so loosely labeled. It's time to take it back into our own hands and own our health," she says.
The two talk with palpable excitement about what they do, delighted by the blossoming popularity of healthy eating. "We became interested in health food at a time when it was very niche, when it was perceived as vain and fussy. Now, people are so interested in what they're eating. That shift has been very noticeable. We have a voice now. It's not all about what the food industry tells us to be eating any more."
It isn't hard to understand why the two have been so warmly welcomed into the food sphere. As well as being genuinely charming, energetic and smart, they push for a lifestyle that is not only achievable, but exciting. "Times are changing. People are realising that wellness begins with eating right," they tell us. "Health and wellness is not going to go out of fashion."
