Food is my favourite way of bringing more joy into this world.
A Little Bit
About Me
I grew up in a home where food was the first love language. My mum, Italian-Dutch, raised in Switzerland. My dad, Punjabi, raised in Malaysia. The table was always full. Different every night, layered with flavour, texture, and the reverence that comes from two cultures who both know that feeding people is an act of love. That's where it started.
After receiving a Bachelor in Culinary Arts from AUT, I quickly found myself working multiple jobs in commercial kitchens. Craving adventure, and ready for the next challenge, I took off to Europe in 2019.
While finding my feet in Frankfurt, I picked up bar work where I was firmly told, I was too slow. Schnell schnell. I got there in the end, and honestly, it was a great time. But when an opportunity came to join the kitchen team at Suryalila, an award-winning retreat centre in the Spanish foothills of Andalucia, I couldn't say no. That was the turning point.
I returned to Suryalila many times over the next five years, diving deeper into their permaculture programs and eventually completing my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training. Amidst it all COVID hit.
I was based in London at the time, working in the kitchen of a schnitzel restaurant - and I'll tell you, I had no idea schnitzel could be prepared in quite so many ways. Turns out the world wasn't ready to find out either. With the industry at a standstill, I decided I wasn't going to sit still.
I retrained as a landscaper, joined Biotecture, the UK's leading living wall specialist, and worked my way up to manager. Funny enough, it was during my Biotecture days that leading retreat kitchens found me properly.
My first booking came out of my own request to volunteer at a festival in Ireland. When the organisers found out I was a chef, they practically threw the job at me. Cooking for that many people, after coming out of lockdown-induced hibernation, was a jump scare and a half... but I said yes anyway.
Fast forward to 2026, I'm now in my second year of the head chef team at Mana Retreat Centre in the Coromandel, with each off-season giving me the opportunity to relocate to Austria, where I've since spent three European summers running the kitchen at Globeseekers Yoga Retreats.
To Your Plate
From My Heart
There's a moment at every retreat I've cooked at where the room changes.
Aromas from the kitchen stop people mid-sentence. Food hits the table, guards come down, and strangers stop being strangers. It never gets old.
Want to bring that to your retreat? Let's make it happen.