Feeding the Future: meet David Cameron’s clean eating sister-in-law

It also makes her choice of career a rather surprising one. We’re here to discuss her new book, Feeding the Future, a modern manifesto for time-poor parents who want to feed their children nutritious yet hearty food, written with her friend Tali Shine, a wellness and beauty consultant at the South Kensington Club. It’s a subject she clearly feels passionate about (‘I started cooking when I was about eight,’ she enthuses, ‘food has always been my thing’), though one has to wonder whether she’s aware of the potential complications that come with being a genetically blessed, multi-millionaire heiress with no shortage of ‘help’ (both a nanny and

a housekeeper are present on my visit) offering lessons to harried parents in how to cook for their kids. The Astor family are worth £210m according to the Sunday Times rich list. They are also some of the most influential people in the country: Lord Astor of Hever is parliamentary under-secretary of state for defence; Rose Astor, Viscount Astor’s first cousin once removed, is now a Van Cutsem, having married Hugh, godfather to Prince George, in 2005.

To her credit, Lohralee does have a diploma in nutrition from the College of Naturopathic Medicine, which took three years, and she’s been eating ‘clean’ since about 2004, long before Deliciously Ella came on the scene. She has personal experience of the trials of feeding young ones. She and Will have three children (Waldorf, four; Allegra, two; and baby Conrad); Waldorf is allergic to dairy and eggs.

Her book, meanwhile, is surprisingly full of real food — fish pie (made with sweet potatoes), beef stew and carrot cake cupcakes. Alcohol isn’t banned; nor is chocolate. She even eats bread, sometimes: ‘Unless you’re allergic to it, it’s not going to kill you.’ Instead, she covers ‘everything’ in olive oil, and says she is ‘obsessed’ with avocados.

She’s already converted her husband (‘he loves it’) and introduced the in-laws to ‘healthy’ sweeteners like Xylitol and instant maple syrup. Is the Prime Minister next? The Camerons and the Astors see each other often — once a month or so. ‘They’ve asked me a couple of questions here and there, but they haven’t come to see me properly. I am always happy to help them if they need it. I think they have a copy of the book.’

She certainly sounds like she has some suggestions to make to Dave — if not for his diet. She fiercely believes that children deserve a better food education. ‘It would be great if kids were educated in it a bit more... the tax on sugar is probably good as well — but I think they need to be educated.’ She thinks the backlash against clean eating is ‘silly’: ‘I’ve gone through periods where I felt I had no energy, but knowing how I react to different foods has made a huge difference in my life.’ Though she acknowledges that ‘some people take it to an extreme and that’s their choice’.

Born Lohralee Stutz, she and her two brothers were brought up in suburban Vancouver. Her mother was a nurse and her father worked in retail — and it was worlds away from the upper echelons of British society that her husband enjoyed as a child. Aged 18, she took up modelling, doing campaigns for Lee Jeans, Diesel and Guess, and lived in New York and Munich.

It was soon after moving to the UK in 2005 to further her career that she met Will at the King’s Road private members’ club Raffles, like a real-life episode of Made in Chelsea. ‘He saw me across the room, and my friend said, “Will Astor really fancies you”.’ She didn’t have a clue who he was. ‘When I saw him, he took my breath away. My friend pointed him out, and I just…’ She gasps theatrically; her hand, with immaculately painted nails, rushes to cover her mouth. ‘And he saw me do that.’

She didn’t get his number. ‘I said to my friends, “if he wants to find me, he’ll find a way”.’ A week later she got a Facebook message from him. ‘I was going to cancel our first date,’ she confesses. ‘I thought, “this is going to lead to trouble”.’

She met William senior and Annabel at the family’s sprawling red brick 17th-century pile, Ginge Manor in Oxfordshire. ‘They were all just so nice and kind, and welcoming,’ Astor says, beaming. ‘We all just bonded.’ She seems to have taken to Astor life like a duck to water: weekends are generally spent in the country at Ginge, and this summer the family are heading to St-Tropez, where she’s been doing up their holiday home.

Her circle includes the fashion designer Emilia Wickstead, one of her oldest friends and Waldorf’s godmother, to whom she introduced Samantha Cameron; model Lisa Henrekson, Nathalie Schyllert, director of operations at Bodyism, and M&S heiress Elizabeth Sieff. Still, she says she ‘never thinks’ about being the next Lady Astor. ‘It doesn’t change my life... It’s nice to have tradition but I don’t think it really makes a difference, the class system, at the end of the day, especially in these times. It’s irrelevant.’

As we part, Lohralee throws her arms around me. Whether her book will inspire other parents to live la vida Astor remains to be seen but I for one wish her well.

‘Feeding the Future’ by Tali Shine & Lohralee Astor is published by teNeues