Food has been part of Petra's life for as long as she can remember. A childhood steeped in Indonesian food culture was followed by a decade in East Africa where, among others, she ran tented safari camps in the wilds of Tanzania and Kenya - a charmed existence of exquisite dawns, roaming elephants, outdoor showers and campfire tales under starry skies...  It is here she began to take an interest in food and learn to adapt world cuisines to locally available ingredients (from garlic-stuffed warthog roasts and wild vegetable salads to hand-churned icecreams and sophisticated cocktails)... see her blog http://frenchflakes.com 

But this was only the beginning of a lifetime career in food... In Ireland she trained as chef and subsequently ran a successful catering company. Her first food column appeared in 1984, followed rapidly by many regular food features for among others The Irish Times, Eat and Wine Ireland and many others. She was food editor of Irish Tatler for 10 years and launched, wrote and edited one of Ireland's first food magazines: SQ Food.  After completing a BA in Fine Art, she added food styling and photography to her foodie activities.

Aside from her present food column in Irish-published Prudence magazine, Petra continues to write and photograph food and travel articles from her home in the South of France's Languedoc region, while running cookery courses from her B&B in Mirepeisset (see http://www.petracarter.com/).