Alan Snow is an award-winning children's book illustrator and designer who has worked on more than 160 books. His novel, Here Be Monsters (OUP, 2005),was made into an animated film, The Boxtrolls, which spent several weeks at the top of the UK box office in 2015.

Fascinated with 'how things work', Alan turned his attentions towards the kitchen, acquiring sophisticated equipment such as vacuum machine, centrifuge, freeze dryer and shock chiller, and has developed his own culinary 'lab'. He has since consulted for The Ethicurian restaurant, and is in the process of launching a boutique ice cream parlour in the Cotswolds, with a nod to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

Alan now runs workshops and courses for professional chefs and cooks, and his gastronomic experiments are due to be filmed for a documentary.