Chef Naturelle

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Chef Naturelle

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Naturopathic chef based in Hertford and specialising in delicious and nourishing plant-based whole food cooking offering cooking lessons, retreat catering and pop-up events.

19/08/2025

Bakes from the weekend - two carrot cakes with pistachio and an orange blossom icing, one black sesame cake with plum compote and black sesame icing.

I really thought hard about the finish on those two, which were ordered by a daughter for her dad’s 60th birthday. I don’t have a “signature decoration” as such, I like to create and I am inspired by the ingredients, the season and what nature looks like at the time of making the cake, and by the person it’s made for. It means I can get my creativity flow freely. In the end, I decided to go simple, with some crushed pistachios and orange zest for the carrot cakes and half moon piping with compote for the black sesame one. I feel like simplicity often reflects the natural rhythm of life and nature - as years go by, we tend to appreciate and see the beauty in the simplicity and the delicate.

14/08/2025

Gathering raspberry leaves, calendula, redcurrants and St John’s Wort.

Watching my son snack on a peach while looking at a spider.

Eating a peach straight from the tree, juicy, sweet and warm from the sun. A very pleasurable experience - I couldn’t do anything else but close my eyes and be fully in this moment. Ah peach 🍑!

Very simple and very precious Summer moments

05/08/2025

Cakes from the weekend made for a mother blessing ceremony and baby shower day ✨

Every celebration cake is special but since becoming a mother myself , celebrating the rite of passage from woman to mother and honouring mamas and mamas-to-be takes a deeper meaning.

I loved making and decorating these cakes featuring the perfect flavour match of strawberries and rose, the flower of the heart 🍓 🌹

Rose sponge, strawberry and rose compote made with the very last strawberries of the season, and a vanilla and white miso icing.

Gluten-free, vegan, organic and free of refined sugars and ingredients. Cakes that look, taste beautiful and which are made with ingredients gathered, grown by myself, sourced from local farms and gardens, who put love and care in what they do.

Congratulations and on this magical new chapter of your lives and thank you for the photos 🤍

28/07/2025

Look up, there are plums on the trees. A lot of them. This year seems to be a magnificent year for fruits.

There are blue tit, gage, opal, victoria, damson, Mirabelles and Reine Claude if you’re in France, to name a few varieties.

Those we picked yesterday - pictured, are deliciously sweet eaten straight from the tree and become sour when cooked, making a great pairing with a sweet cake (last picture) or adding an edge to a breakfast with coconut yoghurt and sprouted buckwheat.

Plums have a beautiful tendency to become thick when cooked thanks to their high pectin content and make a great compote or coulis, without the need to add anything to thicken.

11/07/2025

Connecting with food, with the soil, with our Mother Earth. This is one of the keys for a bright future for our children, one in which they feel connected to the land, the earth, nature as a whole, they understand it and their role in it, love it and look after it.

As adults we can lead the way, show and teach the next generation but really, they are the ones remind us what we’ve simply forgotten.

And the taste of a homegrown carrot? Still an unbeaten sensorial experience for me - it’s sweet, crunchy, full of flavour, and the satisfaction and patience to have watched something grown. Simple and yet one of life’s greatest pleasures

30/06/2025

Birthday cakes, for my own little one this time. 2 years of being your maman 💕

I am really liking making a cake just for him, which he can share if he wants to, and another one for us all.

For him, another fraisier this year. I did think a lot about it, wanting to do something different but Strawberries are at their juiciest and sweetest for his birthday and he loves them as much this year as he did last year. A chocolate sponge forms the base which is circled with fresh strawberries and topped with a coconut yoghurt - roasted strawberries - vanilla mousse. The very first calendula of the garden crowns the fraisier to finish.

For everyone else (and also for him!), a layered sponge cake filled with apricot and thyme compote and topped with a blueberry and lavender ganache. It’s so stunning by itself I just garnished it with a nastartium blossom from the garden. I still can’t get over the colour of the ganache, such a beautiful purple which complements the orange so well - both in flavours and colour. I hadn’t planned on flavouring it with lavender but as soon as I saw the colour it became, I just had to - it was screaming for lavender! And the flavour combinations were just perfect.

Happy birthday to my little love, and birthing day to me. We both had plenty of cake 😋

05/05/2025

The best time of year.

Spring really is the best time of year and a delicious time to be cooking. After a long winter of limited produce that needs time to cook comes an array of freshness, colour and textures.

Radishes are roasted and generously sprinkled with sea salt. If you’ve never roasted radishes before, you’re in for a treat! These spicy Cherry Belle become sweet like candy and will become your new favourite snack.

Potatoes are boiled and dressed with mint and a strong mustard dressing.

Asparagus are steamed and a dollop of wild garlic butter is dropped while they are still hot, allowing the butter to melt and coat them.

I picked up some beautiful red Russian Kale at , blanched it and shocked it in cold water before blending with chickpeas for a delicious purée. On top, pointed cabbage is braised and then cooked in stock for a melt in the mouth result. I love my cabbage when it melts in the mouth, something inherited from my grandmother and which I count to pass onto@next generations. A sprinkle of Cornish kelp to finish.

04/05/2025

Upside down rhubarb, chocolate and orange cake.

I spent all morning walking in the woods, playing with my son play among the trees, watching him trying to pick (successfully!) a solitary bee, and picking nettle and hawthorn.

When I got back, I was craving for chocolate cake. After taking my son for his nap, I went to the kitchen, took out some trusted ingredients out of the cupboard and placed them on the counter. I also had fresh rhubarb and I fancied using it, one of my favourite ways being in an upside down cake. Usually, I pair rhubarb with orange and rosemary but my love for pure and dark cacao is strong these days (oh hello magnesium! 🍫), so I decided to combine these three ingredients together. I could see how the tartness of the rhubarb would go well with the richness of the chocolate. I changed one of the recipes I know by heart to include raw cacao powder while making sure my dry-wet ratio was the same (so there was some note taking involved), olive oil in place of coconut oil and a generous amount of orange zest. In the oven it went, and after just 30 minutes patiently waiting in front of the oven, it was ready. Almost. Gluten-free cakes always need to rest a little in the tin to avoid falling apart. So I waited some more, then turned the tin upside down onto a plate, the contrast of the pink and green hues of rhubarb against the dark brown sponge taking my breath away. I couldn’t wait for it to cool down completely to slice it, it was so delicious. The sponge is soft, rich in chocolate, just sweet enough and zesty from the orange with its centre slightly runny, which I adore. The rhubarb is soft and sticky, caramelised. My idea of a lovely Sunday.

19/04/2025

Nature awakens and the soil is bursting with life, generously carpeting the bare Winter ground with luscious leaves and bright flowers, fresh leaves and scented blossoms popping on the trees above us. “Weeds” mingle together in a gorgeous mess and offer us the freshest food and most dense rich nutrients we need at this time of year. What a time to be in nature!

In my walk yesterday, I picked nettles, dandelion flowers and cleavers.

🌱 Nettles will be weaved through falafel and dried to use in infusion - nettles are super nutritive especially rich in iron easily absorbed by the body and they are an ally for those suffering with hay fever.

🌼Dandelion flowers are currently infusing with rosehips in raw apple cider vinegar and honey for oxymel magic to be served at a Beltane gathering in a couple of weeks.

🌿Fresh cleavers are infusing in water and left in the sunshine to soak all the solar energy transforming into a powerful spring tonic.

14/04/2025

Easter treats with a chocolate sponge cake filled and topped with a silky smooth 75% chocolate ganache!! Beautiful magnolias petals complement the chocolate by giving a hint of delicate and gingery flavour and putting on a striking show with their gorgeous purple colour 🌺

This is one of my versions of the «Nid de Pâques » (Easter nest cake) that I grew up eating (my version being without refined sugar, without gluten, high in protein, you know me 😉) - a flavoured genoise and a generous amount of buttercream of the same flavour, decorated with a nest shaped using the buttercream and cradling chocolate eggs. They look and taste absolutely delightful!

Happy Easter week to all 🐣 May you all indulge in beautiful treats which taste delicious but are also nourishing body, mind and heart!

23/03/2025

Dinner for my 20 month old - bibimbap with wild rice, sautéed carrots and courgettes, tamari hen of the woods, steamed purple sprouting broccoli, wild garlic and pine nut pesto, clementine pickled red onions.

I take so much pleasure in preparing food for him, and plating it up beautifully. I have always served him the same food as me, believing that he too deserves a lovely looking and delicious plate of food.

He loves hanging or helping in the kitchen when I am cooking, because he gets to taste each ingredient while I am cooking it. I discovered he adores clementine pickled red onions, saying “more” after he tried it, same with the wild garlic pesto which does pack a punch and when he got served the bibimbap, he tasted it and said “good”, with a nod of approval 🤍

15/03/2025

Huge congratulations to and for the publication of their new book - 19th Handbook, all about Bees and honey 🐝 🍯 and for the launch party on Wednesday at the beautiful Holland Park.

Such a delight to be celebrating my dear friend Rachel and sampling some of the recipes she shares in the book - the halva were divine, tahini and honey a favourite pairing making a great snack and satisfying for the sweet tooth.

Importantly, I love that this book, like all River Cottage books, is much more than recipes. It is informative, and helps us understand the earth we live on and the nature we are part of, a little better in order to look after it, a little more too.

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