Hello & Welcome!

Where it all started…

Brought up in a Sicilian/British household in Australia, I was exposed to a strong European influence from an early age. I was lucky enough to grow up in an environment where food and nature were the landscapes I knew and interacted with daily. I searched for freshly laid eggs under the hens’ warm bellies and from an early age I could tell you what was growing in the vegetable garden; I knew when the raspberries were ready to be picked for making jam; I tasted the sweetness of a fresh fig from the tree and looked forward to the autumn when we foraged the prickly chestnuts to roast over an open fire. My Sicilian grandmother had a passion for simple healthy food that tasted great. It was from the bustling warmth of her kitchen that she taught me to create mouth-watering recipes that had remained unchanged through countless generations before her. Over the many years I spent in her company, under her watchful gaze, I came to learn the art of cooking as well as adopting many of her cooking principles.

Initially, the idea of turning my passion for cooking and all things related to food bypassed me as a possible career
 path. Fascinated by natural health, I graduated from the Southern School of Natural Therapies with a four-year degree in Naturopathy. I practiced for many years, supporting patients with cancer and women’s health challenges such as endometriosis and PCOS. It was during these years that I began to understand how the body is intrinsically related to its environment and what we feed it.

By 24, my curiosity of unexplored shores could no longer be ignored and like so many others of my antipodean generation, I ventured off to chase new sunsets. I decided it was time to reconnect to my European roots once again and moved to the intoxicating rolling hills of the Chianti region of Tuscany, Italy where after eight months spent working as an au pair and cook; enjoying the pleasures of hot summer days, lazy afternoon siestas and the abundance of Italian produce, I embarked on my next adventure to the French Alps, where all my childhood passions for cooking could combine with top class dining and attention to detail as a chalet chef.

And so, with two years of summer to winter seasonal chef jobs under my apron strings, I found myself moving to London on a whim of love. Having been swept off my feet by an Englishman, I took a position as a private chef in Notting Hill and continued my journey with food in the metropolis, which is when I wrote my first recipe book, Suitcase of Recipes, published by Vagabond in Norway.

Having spent a decade of my life dedicated to amateur professional indoor Volleyball, my first experience of yoga didn’t come until a friend of mine invited me to join her for a class one evening. After an hour of twisting, stretching and sweating my way through a dynamic power yoga class I collapsed onto my mat utterly exhausted but also feeling completely alive. Somehow I had found peace, elation and clarity in the process of moving through the combination of these ancient poses. 

My ongoing experiences of the yogic way of life seeded the idea to open and run three healthy-eating, vegetarian cafes called Retreat, located inside established yoga studios dotted around London. Our moorish treats such as the chewy tahini cookies became famous amongst the London yoga community and so I went on to publish my second recipe book, titled The Yoga Kitchen (Quadrille, 2016). Available in 9 different languages, The Yoga Kitchen is a culinary delight for any cook looking to include innovative vegetarian, gluten and sugar-free recipes into their cooking and follows the chakra system and is a true alchemy of food and holistic health.

Following the success of The Yoga Kitchen I then published The Yoga Kitchen Plan (Quadrille, 2019) which is a 7-day yoga lifestyle plan combined with a 4-week vegetarian meal planner and is for those who know that yoga makes them feel great, but who are having trouble incorporating yoga principles into everyday life outside the yoga studio. The book is a friendly and easy to follow guide for all things yoga when on AND off the mat.

In 2019 I became a mother as we welcomed our son into our lives. This was when I began to truly understand the concept of living in the present moment and the real struggle that exists to find balance in the modern world, especially as a new mother. This led me to publish my fourth book as an ode to my son, titled A Balanced Life (Quadrille 2021). The book is a pocket-sized guide to align your chakras and awaken your subtle body for emotional clarity, balanced energy and enhanced wellbeing. Since then we have also welcomed our daughter in 2021 and now live a life filled with their joy.

and how its all going…

I live in Surrey, in the United Kingdom where my children and I spend as much time as possible in our garden and the natural world around us. Each year, together we forage for berries and elderflower, we grow our own fruits, vegetables and herbs, making plenty of conserves and sauces from our abundance. I continue to treat and educate my patients on hormonal health and awareness and feel deeply passionate about educating young women about their menstrual cycles and about the foods, exercise and lifestyle choices they can utilise to honour their most sacred bodily cycle, making their hormones work for them.