Chatting with Bettina Campolucci Bordi; Founder of Bettina's Kitchen

Today I am chatting with Bettina Campolucci Bordi. Bettina is an author, vegan chef, and founder of Bettina's Kitchen. She believes we can start now to positively influence the next generation in the importance of true self-care and choices so that, unlike us, they don’t have to relearn them later in life. This includes sourcing local ingredients in any shape or form, preserving traditions, eating seasonally and cooking from scratch.

https://www.bettinaskitchen.com

This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to Vegan research, businesses, art, and society. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. 

 

TRANSCRIPTION

*Please note this is an automated transcription, please excuse any errors or typos

[00:00:01] In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with plant based author, food consultant and retreat host Bettina Campolucci Bordi. Key points addressed were Bettina's information and cookbooks in her books titled Seven Day Vegan Challenge and Happy Food Fast, Fresh, Simple Vegan. Bettina and I also examine the importance of eating seasonally and responsibly in regards to local farms and distance between food to table. Stay tuned for my fantastic chat with Bettina Campolucci Bordi. 

 

[00:00:40] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from food and fashion to tech and agriculture, from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas. The dialog captured here is part of our ongoing effort to host transparent and honest rhetoric. For those of you who, like myself, find great value in hearing the expertize and opinions of individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to their ideals. If you're enjoying these podcasts, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Fasting and roundtable topics. They can be found on our Web site. Patricia. Kathleen. Dot com, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Being and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation. Hi, everyone, and welcome back. 

 

[00:01:39] I am your host, Patricia. And I am sitting down today with Chef Bettina Campolucci Bordi. She is a plant based author, recipe developer, Vegan food consultant, content creator and retreat host. You can find out more about her on her Web site. W w w dot Bettina's kitchen dot com. Welcome, Bettina. 

 

[00:01:59] Thank you so much for having me. 

 

[00:02:01] Thank you for having me as well. I can't wait to kind of climb through. You've got a really prolific reach as m as a chef and an author and cookbook developer. I'm excited to get into everything. But before we do that, a quick roadmap for everyone. Listening for today's podcast will first look at Bettina's academic and professional history. And then we will turn our attention towards unpacking her story, her businesses and books. We will also look at her Web site and the different information that that offers, as well as her services. And then we will get into specific questions that I have regarding the rhetoric around Vegan eating and living during the week of the covered 19 pandemic and pieces of advice that Bettina might have. And then we will look at the differences between some key categories, particularly when it comes to the world of culinary and the intersection of that and Vegan life. And we'll wrap everything up with goals that Petina may have for herself and her business endeavors in the next one to three years, as well as advice for those of you that are looking to get involved in what she is doing and how she's working everything. Before I start getting too much into the minutia of everything between, I'm hoping you can walk us through kind of a brief description of your academic background and early professional life that helps develop the platform of how you came in to launching your Web site and your books. 

 

[00:03:23] Absolutely. So my background is has always been a food and beverage. 

 

[00:03:29] And it's what I, I, I used to work in restaurants from the age of 15. The difference was that I was always front of house, so I wasn't actually in the kitchen when I first started out. I was always really passionate about cooking and about food and grew up in a family where we would go on holiday. And it wasn't the museums that we remembered. It would be the meal that we had or the market that we went to and grew up with two grandmothers that loved cooking. 

 

[00:04:01] So my passion was always cooking. However, it was something that I was advised not to follow in terms of being a chef to begin with. And the closest I could come to or be near food would be to go down the food and beverage route. So my degree is actually in hotel management and business. So, yeah, I worked in a while. 

 

[00:04:29] You turned away. Who was advising you not to get near the food industry? 

 

[00:04:34] I think my parents were like, no, there's no feature of being a chef. It's hard work. It doesn't pay well. You know, if your academic does go down that route. And so I was like, okay, what can I study or what can I have a degree? And that sort of an envelope that includes food and being in the industry. So, yeah, sense of house for many, many is. And then when I was I think I was twenty six or twenty seven, this opportunity came up. I was the food and beverage manager of this sort of result that was running retreats. And I met a business partner and we thought we can do this so much better. And by starting this new business, which was within the wellness industry, I decided that rather than finding a chef that would cook on these retreats, I would want to do the cooking. So this was, yeah, 70 years ago now. And that is how I sort of got into plant based cooking at the time. It was very popular to do just detoxes. So we decided that we wanted to let our clients eat food. Is the best way of doing that was going Vegan or what I like to call from Facebook. We'll get we'll get to that bit later on. And also decided to do gluten free cooking. So it was Vegan and gluten free and basically. Round the first retreat and got really passionate about that source of cooking, and that is what initially sparked this whole journey that I entered into. So remember that 78 years ago, veganism was definitely not as widespread as it is today. Yeah. And everyone was wondering, what are you doing? Why are you doing vegan food? Why are you doing gluten free? And this business was started in southern Spain, which is even sort of it's more traditional in terms of how they cook. And my color palette was going to food markets because they're eating seasonally and going to a food market was the best and cheapest way to source food and using basics like grains and rice and sort of good, good produce. So that's sort of that became the basis of my cooking. 

 

[00:07:29] It was originally to fulfill this kind of retreat mentality. Did you have these breaks in between where you would go off and develop new recipes for the next load of retreat's customers, or how did that work? 

 

[00:07:42] So when I started out, this was sort of pre social media and. Blogging and stuff like that, so I had a few cookbooks written by Swedish cookbook authors. That was sort of touching base on sort of raw vegan cuisine. And I had those as a basis. And then I stumbled across Matthew Kenny, who was doing online courses and also had a cooking school in L.A.. So on one of our holidays, I convinced my husband to fly over to L.A. and I did one of his courses and I was hooked. So I ended up doing a few of his courses. I started going to more food expos. And, you know, with passion comes a curiosity. So your work becomes your passion and vice versa. So with with all of that, I started recipe developing because, you know, if for recipes good. Then you obviously want to make it again. 

 

[00:08:52] And. 

 

[00:08:55] Instagram came along as well. And Instagram was a tool for me to remember what I'd cooked on all of these retreats. Oh, no. A little internal. Exactly. So if you've been on my Instagram, it's overhead shots with me holding a plate, basically. And I. I wear funky socks. But people started to notice that became a thing. So, yeah, Instagram was a way of journaling food because it was a way of remembering the dishes that I'd cooked on different retreats. And that took off along with begin cooking. Rounds came along. And that's how sort of recipe development came along as well in terms of. Well, fast forward a few years and Vegan on gluten free cooking became ginormous. 

 

[00:09:51] All of the sudden, yeah, you were in a really interesting time period. I feel like just my personal journey as a Vegan person where it's been during a time period that I don't think will recreate itself again in that, you know, when I was doing it, it was myself, Buddhist monks and some hippies strung out. You know, it was just this exact change moment. People would gasp. Some people were like, I don't understand that. That's just being a vegetarian. There was all these different things. But it's amazing how mainstream it's become and not amazing. 

 

[00:10:20] It's it's actually a music to my ears because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have ended up with a friend in sight. How much I talked about the benefits of veganism. And it's good to have other people kind of touting it now, too. 

 

[00:10:31] And for you as a chef, it's interesting to have even I was speaking to a Vegan baker and she was saying, you know, it's almost free to be a regular baker in the United States. The subsidies that are attached to milk and eggs and things like that make it practically free to use those items. And she was like, you know, you talk about arrowroot. And I'm still paying top dollar for that. There's no competition bringing that price down. And yet, as chefs and, you know, still maintaining integrity with ingredients and what you do, I think as the Vegan world opens up more, they'll become more accessible and you'll be able to produce more of it and those types of things. I'm wondering, you have two books that I've looked over. We talked about this before recording, and one of them is the seven day Vegan challenge. And another one is the happy food, fast, fresh, simple Vegan. And I'm wondering, after a while, we're unpacking your journey and your story. I kind of want to gloss over these. I want to say is seven day Vegan challenge came first. Is that correct? 

 

[00:11:34] No way. Rapid fire, OK. 

 

[00:11:36] And then first, let's start with happy food, fash. Fresh, simple Vegan. It's, um. It's so I have a summary here is in Happy Food. You share a collection of easy and delicious plant. These recipes that anyone can incorporate in their busy life, whether you're looking to eat more veggies or you've decided to turn vegan but don't want to compromise on taste as the book for you. Your philosophy is your simple food is meant to make you happy. So can you kind of draw out for the audience listening in this food? We get our first introduction to you some of your recipes and your style of cooking. What is the overall ethos that you really meant to convey for your reader and practitioners from this cookbook? 

 

[00:12:18] I think for me, it's always been really important to let the field do the talking and not sort of not not be trapped by labels. So if it tastes good, if it looks good, then it doesn't matter whether it's I think. Hang on a second. 

 

[00:12:42] How do I say this with the wellness industry and with a lot of people coming on retreats? There was a lot of presumptions on what Vegan food was going to be like. 

 

[00:12:52] So one prime example is a lot of partners or husbands coming with their wives and sort of been been talked into coming into going on a yoga retreat and, you know, having to Vegan food for a week. So my philosophy was always like, if I can get those type of people on board. And to make them completely forget about the label of, say, Vegan food and just enjoy the food itself for what it is, it looks beautiful. It tastes beautiful. It's comforting. And it makes you feel good. Then I've sort of nailed it and it doesn't matter under what label the food stands under. So that's the type of philosophy that I've tried to fall in. Also using good basic ingredients, not having to go to a supermarket and spending hundreds of dollars on specialty ingredients that are flown halfway across the world to be able to achieve good results. So with you know, you can achieve tasty food with very little and you can you can let natural colors do the talking. This there's not much that you have to alter or change to get good, tasty food. And yeah, I think there's this there's always a misconception that Vegan food. Well, was any ways that Vegan if it was boring, that was. But it was not filling enough or not comforting. So those are the people that I target. The people that have those preconceptions and also inspiring people to include and eat more vegetables without being afraid to give it a go. So. And also bringing back the forgotten vegetables, I call them, you know, potatoes and carrots and onions and cabbage and all of these amazing vegetables that we have. You know, you would normally receive on a weekly basis if you subscribe to vegetable box and then you just don't know what to do with them. But there's so many different ways that we can incorporate. 

 

[00:15:04] Yeah. And I think you're a you're. You've integrated a lot of talk about cabbage in particular. 

 

[00:15:09] And I'm a massive fan of all varieties of cabbage and how it's overlooked. You can bake it. You can steam it. There's so many things that you can do to cabbage that, you know, most people viewed as like a lettuce. And so you and I had a great deal in common in that way. I'm curious, in this book, is the baptismal moment that you're kind of describing where you're bringing people into this kind of uncomplicated, not fussy, beautifully looking, wonderfully tasting, Vegan like dietary moment. 

 

[00:15:40] Then how does your second book, 17 Vegan challenge for you? A really quick summary on that. It's curious about veganism, but already recoiling at visions of expensive Whole Foods stores, your grumbling stomach and an insatiable craving for cheese. Then this is the book for you in seven day Vegan Challenge. Bettina shows that with a little bit of planning. 

 

[00:16:02] Anyone can go vegan for a week. So it seems like you've almost taken on you've done the introductory with your first book, and in the seven one, you're almost challenging people to give it a shot. How would you define the two or how would you say the second one came along and kind of changed your scope or refined it of like plant based eating? 

 

[00:16:24] I think it's Somas. I think you're right in assuming that the seven day Vegan challenge came first because it's almost like happy food. Was this collection of recipes that I've cooked all all over the world on numerous wellness retreats. And it's sort of my last seven life as so the seven day Vegan challenge. So happy food is almost like. Not a Bible, but it's almost like the basis and the recipes are a little slightly more involved and complicated. And what I wanted to achieve with the seven day Vegan challenge was a simplified version of recipes that you can cook on an everyday basis. And then, yes, I would say it's the other way round. Even though happy food came first. If you have the opportunity to sort of now that both of them are out there, I would get seven day Vegan challenge first and then I would move on to happy food, even though they came out the other way around. So as an introduction to plant based food, I would definitely go with the seven day Vegan challenge and then sort of graduates a happy food where the recipes are more involved. There are slightly more complicated. This still really simple. However, the recipes in the seven day Vegan challenge are very simplified. And also I allowed myself to be okay with the fact that if you don't want to make hummus from scratch, you can buy a shot-put. Hamas, if you don't want to make Vegan cheese from scratch, then it's okay to buy shot-put Vegan cheese. It's almost like. It's a book for the people that either love cooking, but also for the people that don't, because there are options for both of you. Yeah, basically. So it's as involved or as not involved as you like it. So definitely say that that's a starting point. 

 

[00:18:35] And loving cooking, you know, and having time for it are two different things as well. You know, in the during the plague shelter in place, I've talked to so many friends who I would never assume loved cooking and they just adoring the time they're having with their ovens and all of these. This breadmaking craze that has swept across my country. This is our dough revolution. 

 

[00:18:57] But I think that it's also, you know, in every day lives in a lot of contemporary societies. The first thing that gets slashed out of our adult time curriculum is the time to cook. And so having these kinds of in between moments where you talk about with 70 Vegan challenge, like brekky on the go and then one pot cooking, like kind of all these all moments meet. And I think that that's interesting. I'm wondering how you feel. Well, I have to say, as a quick side note, you brought in cheese. And I'm as someone who goes, I go to Ireland frequently, I'm afraid, in Dublin. And when I first discovered the Vegan cheese in Ireland, as opposed to what they were producing in the States about six years ago, I could not figure out what the problem was. It's as though they had cornered the market. And it's because they have these Greeks come up into Dublin and create these big in restaurants and they made oh, they're big in cheese out of olive oil. And it was like this revolution. And in the States, they were still throwing every chemical under the sun to try and create that cheese. That wouldn't melt. It wouldn't do it. This is back in the day, right? 2007, whatever. And it was horrendous. It was it would make to make you kind of crawl away and cry. So there are certain things, I think, that begins, particularly all over the world, have misconceptions about different countries that brought certain attributes are still kind of clinging to other areas. And so it's interesting to note that there are products in other countries that I find most people would discover to be superior to other countries. And it's good to encourage people to kind of reach out because we haven't completely globalized yet. No one's come on this idea and perception. And I know a lot of vegans that don't understand how easy it is to make things like Vegan cheese so easy, you know, ridiculously easy and so much cheaper to do. 

 

[00:20:46] So, yeah, exactly. 

 

[00:20:48] And you can fine tune it if you like a little garlic, you can. You know, it's it's all about exactly from scratch that way. I won't get into. Well first of all, do you have a favorite Sophie's Choice. Do you have a darling recipe that you could cite for breakfast, lunch and dinner out of all of your recipes or maybe a favorite of this month? I was make my children choose a favorite color every single day because it can change. But they need decisiveness. 

 

[00:21:13] Yes. And as a favorite of three favorites from both of them. Both the books. 

 

[00:21:19] Yeah. Right now I'd I'd definitely say. 

 

[00:21:24] My non my non meatball's. A classic, and they are super versatile. I always them are those. I would definitely say my Kashi truffle cheese. It's indulgent. It's. I would say that it's one of those dishes that can turn people because it's good and it tastes like cheese and it's got offensive of truffle is brilliant. The last. Last, but not least, my pumpkin seed pesto. I make that on a weekly basis. I always have a tub of it in my fridge. It goes on everything, really, and on toast. Right. As a dressing drizzled on say, I mean, it's good and it's not free as well. So that's one of the other sort of angles that my recipes are clearly marked, whether they contain nuts or not. So I've had a lot of clients. Yeah, that's wonderful. I know that, Connie. Not so that's a good one. 

 

[00:22:35] Well, I'm glad you were able to pick three. I usually get feedback from people like that. Couldn't possibly do that. So I like that. You find. I don't like this, Ray. Yeah, for sure. 

 

[00:22:44] You brought up earlier and I want to climb into it. I usually always wait for somebody to drop the terms. I use the term Vegan a lot because that is how the podcast series was developed. It was investigating Vegan life and that umbrella in and of itself is riddled and troubled with a lot of terms that get argued over. And now that they're being incorporated into advertising and marketing arguments are industries, it's becoming even more convoluted with, you know, questions as to what sustains one term and another. I'm wondering where you personally define plant based versus Vegan. 

 

[00:23:18] So also assessing this recently with someone and it's been an interesting journey for me because what I forgot to mention is when when I started cooking at these retreats, I, I went Vegan and gluten free because I had a health scare. I think I was I think I must have been 26 or 27. I basically was told that I would never have children. I stopped taking contraception pills and then had a really, really difficult time. And I got to basically have something that's cold in the metro system, places to go recently. So that sort of. Opened up a box and at the same time, I was starting this new business. So I decided to go vegan and gluten free at the time and change my life. But not only were three foods, I mean, I changed a lot of other things as well. Slowly but surely. So it's it's one of those things that I don't like talking about too much because everybody's journey is individual. However, seven months down the line with this new business, I got pregnant again. Against all odds. So, yeah, I'm definitely not say, you know, change y'all. It was the food that, you know, made that happen because lots of different things happened during that period. However, it had a massive impact on my life. So, yes, let's go back to your question. 

 

[00:25:05] The Vegan version of. No, I think this ties in beautifully because it you know, how we come to veganism, I think is very, very important for people to understand as well. I've unearthed, you know, stories just in the first 20 episodes and then spending 10 years of my life prior to that. People come at it from spiritual points of view, from I've spoken to academics that became vegan because it increases their intellectual performance. Mathematicians, there are people that come to it to look more beautiful. There are people that come to it to perform better at sports. There's so many different reasons. And, you know, in disease or ailments being one of them, I love it because it creates a lot of unlikely vegans. You know, there are white fat stockbrokers in the United States that are becoming Vegan because they don't want to die. So it's like it's there's just so many other areas that can kind of come to it. It's it's a unifying thing. And so I think that yours coming at it from a health standpoint really does help our audience and people listening to your story and your cookbook. Understand, I and I think it ties into your relationship with the beauty and the vitality of the food that you were talking about earlier, that relationship that you have with it, having changed your health and made you feel better and and return you to an homeostasis is so important. And I'm wondering within that so there is this kind of argument between being Vegan and being plant based. And I want to know how you feel about it and how you particularly feel people in England where you're based and how they feel about it. 

 

[00:26:33] So, yeah, this was what I was going to come to the point that I was going to come to. So very recently, I I sort of discovered that with what's been happening recently in terms of, well, how huge veganism has become become and how big the label has become. I sort of feel like to pull yourself begin in some aspects it's all the animals. And then whatever is as long as whatever's on your plate hasn't suffered, then it's OK. It sort of goes under the Vegan label, whereas I feel that if you'll plump based, you'll you'll more environmentally focused and more sustainably focused rather than the suffering of animals. So you care more about where your food is sourced from and where it's come from than it just being Vegan. And that's kind of that's kind of how I define the difference between the two. And with with Tom faced, I would say some people that call themselves plant based. It means that they predominantly eat plant based. But if they do eat animal products, then they are ethically sourced. Can or cannot be included. So that's that's my that's my feeling of where it's going, it's more. I think the plant based time is more flexible than the Vegan. Yes. 

 

[00:28:11] And it's an interesting take on it, you know, coming back to the suffering and things like that of animals. There's a lot of companies putting out products right now, and I'm not sure if it will change, but they're attaching a plant based label to something that is not Vegan. And I think there are a lot of vegans, consumers out there. Originally, when plant based happened, it was a nicer way of saying Vegan people felt like it was separating it from some of the politics, that it seemed like guerrilla warfare in the past or something that was fringe and bringing it to mainstream. But since then, at least in the United States, there have been a lot of companies that will say plant based on the label. Vegans will buy that thinking. It's Vegan and it's not Vegan. It may mean merely that there's some plant based articles or ingredients within it. 

 

[00:28:54] Wow, that's very misleading. Yes, very misleading. Yeah, it is. 

 

[00:28:59] It's fun. 

 

[00:28:59] I was speaking to an Australian Vegan pub owner a couple of months ago before I got taken home for the quarantine. And she the same thing that they were having issues with that in Australia. So I think that that'll become interesting to see how people approach that. This was prior to the pandemic. And so with the pandemic, people may be backing away from some of those things. I don't know what your society and economy is doing exactly in Great Britain, but over here, you know, beyond me and beyond Burger and things like that are hitting an all time high as far as their stocks. The IPO is are really supposed to boom with these kinds of meat alternatives as of the fallout. 

 

[00:29:41] I'm wondering, do you do you feel like the Cauvin 19 pandemic has changed your relationship or the way that you will speak with your customers moving forward about plant based or vegan diets? Or do you think it's kind of just deepened what you already knew? 

 

[00:30:02] For me personally, it definitely is deep and what I already know, and I think a lot more people. 

 

[00:30:13] Going down the route of supporting farmers support, supporting farm to table, supporting basic ingredients. Going back to baking. Going back to fermenting. I think it's just opened up that door where you are forced to make things from scratch, whereas before you have the options to really not do that. And people were too busy. So I think it's had a really positive impact in the sense that people care a lot more where their food comes from. They've gained new skills in terms of cooking for themselves. I always say. Rather than labeling anything, I think the greatest self care act that you can do for yourself is to cook from scratch because you know exactly what's going into that pot. Set aside all labels. That is the one biggest thing that you can do for yourself. That is in terms of self care. Take the time to source good ingredients. Then they don't have to be expensive. And I cook from scratch. 

 

[00:31:20] Absolutely, I agree. And I personally feel like the energy created in the relationship with the food consumed changes the experience and the health thereafter as well. 

 

[00:31:31] I'm wondering, do you, as you do a lot of consulting, if you go to your Web site, you find a lot of information based on you. It's it's great media presence. All of those things as a food consultant. What do you foresee? First of all, what work have you done in the past and who are you looking to work with in the future regarding consultancy? 

 

[00:31:56] So I've done a lot of recipe development for different brands and for hotels or for the restaurant industry. 

 

[00:32:07] The way that sort of. 

 

[00:32:11] The way that I work and the way that where I'm headed, I think, is to find natural solutions and to support sustainable and environmentally friendly farming as much as possible. To me, it's more important to sort of envelop those side of things rather than promoting or supporting a product that is Vegan. And I think that is sort of the main with so many companies coming out with Reagen products. People sort of bypass how it's made, what it contains, where it comes from, what it supports, what it's packaged in. All of these things to me. Matter a lot. So I'm sort of coming at it from that angle of I want to know where my products come from or the ingredients come from. And simple companies that do good. 

 

[00:33:15] Yes, and I think that you are in good company. I think there are a lot of people here, if they're not there right now, they're headed in that direction. 

 

[00:33:23] And, yes, companies that help you source those things, you know, I think a lot of people care but just don't know how to allocate or figure out where those resources are. 

 

[00:33:33] Absolutely. And I do think that a lot of big companies are cashing in on the fact that veganism has become big and, you know, not to mention any big names, but there are a lot of companies that are, you know, dishing out vegan options. But then the way that the salt is sourcing their ingredients, all of the other products is, you know, horrific. And they're still supporting factory farming, J labor, et cetera, et cetera. So but this sort of winning in terms of of having a Vegan offering and people are buying into it. And, you know, it infuriates me because, yeah, I would I would never go and eat a vegan burger or a beacon fake chicken from those companies, because the other part of what they support is, isn't it great? 

 

[00:34:31] Well, and that's an interesting aspect, too. You know, getting back to returning very briefly to the conversation of Vegan versus plant based. There used to be an understanding when it was more of a my nute group of people that, you know, there was a lot of ethos that went behind something being Vegan. There was a sustainability normally attached to it. You had a responsibility. And there were all these deeper questions which made it difficult for people who were doing it, didn't care. They wanted the payoff of that difficult nature. And one of those things is, you know, going and getting a substitute chicken sandwich at Kentucky Fried Chicken here still supports all of the most horrific practices. Exactly. So that's what you're saying. And so I think that now that there's that choice, there is that murkiness. That's kind of creeping into what is clearly a global, you know, Vegan conversation. So and those things should be considered and brought in the forefront. You know, I had so many people reach on, say, are you going to go try it? 

 

[00:35:30] When they released it and I said, yeah, let's do that, it just exactly how little they thought through that, like, oh, why would she do that? 

 

[00:35:41] That would be furthering, you know, some irony. 

 

[00:35:44] Hundred percent. It makes no sense. It's like, no. Why would you want to go and try that? Why would you want to eat a bug that's been fried on the same grill as the meat bug is? Right. You know, it's just. No, no, no, no. 

 

[00:35:59] And I think once we have that conversation enough and funneling it through, I think that there will be people kind of putting those things together and the next facility. I'm an optimist and I believe in human nature kind of coming through. 

 

[00:36:11] And if we're gonna break through these original things great together as meat eaters off of it. But the conversation must always end with, like, ultimate accountability and transparency, which I think the food world and the United States has lacked since the 80s. You know, getting back to a place where we know exactly how many chemicals and preservatives we're eating or slathering on our skin and everything else is is coming. And I think it's going to be a game changer. At least that's my drive. 

 

[00:36:41] I'm wondering moving forward with you. What are your future goals, given that you have this kind of. We've we've spoken about, you know, your future efforts really, as you see yourself changing, getting into sustainable farming and practices and really continuing on that path. Have you looked forward to, like, your next one to three years of work and, you know, we'll be writing another book? If so, can you give us a like a preview or a snippet from that we'll be pushing efforts into? What are your next, like one to three years for all of your endeavors? 

 

[00:37:12] Yeah, so I'm writing a third book, so I'm doing that over the summer. It will come out probably next year, next autumn. So it takes it takes a long time to write a book. People don't realize this. So, yeah, I'm writing, but probably over the next sort of three months I run a chef's academy where I teach other people how to become retreat chefs. So I've got a seven year old and I've sort of eased eased in on my traveling and instead teaching what I know. So I do four courses a year, which is an intensive seven day. It's super intimate. There's only ten people on them. And basically, I teach you everything I know. I've learned over the sort of past seven, eight years. 

 

[00:38:09] So I'll be doing more of those. And growing my business in terms of having a. 

 

[00:38:15] Reach inspiring more people to include vegetables into their diets. Definitely zoning in and learning more about agriculture myself by going to visit farms and supporting them. 

 

[00:38:33] Also. Enveloping and sort of. 

 

[00:38:39] Going into waste free cooking, waste free is something that I've done. As an as a given. Because when you're in retreats, you are in a very sort of low budget, but you want to feed people as well as possible. So supporting vegetables that would normally get thrown out because they're not the right size, because they're not the right shape. So finding solutions on how to minimize that type of waste. And something that I've been toying with for a long time is opening up an outlet and not like a restaurant. But everything is going online now. But doing meal options so that you can sit on a subscription basis. But instead of offering meals that are just big and also using up wastage. So. And supporting organic and sustainable farming and also eating seasonally, because that is something that we sort of don't do as much as we should do because we've got access to so many different ingredients. We we sort of don't follow the seasons as much as we used to. 

 

[00:39:56] And that's something that I've read on that, because you have mentioned that. You mentioned that in your book. 

 

[00:40:00] And then I kind of I love the idea of it because I do think that there's a perception which I myself held for the majority of my life, that that eating seasonally was no longer even necessary for good health because we have these greenhouses all over the world that can produce food. Can you kind of in a nutshell, explain to the audience why eating seasonally is important for you? 

 

[00:40:23] Well, let's take the strawberry, for example. I mean, if you eat a strawberry in winter, it's not going to taste the same. And it's definitely not going to have the same nutritional value if it's grown in a greenhouse compared to if it's burned out on a field in the height of summer when it's supposed to grow. And weaving that weaving in organic farming as well. I think that makes a huge difference. And eating things that are local. So an apple that is grown close to home rather than Apple that has been picked two to three, four weeks earlier and stored and then brought to you is a huge nutritional difference and also a difference in taste and quality. So the closer things are grown to your house, the shorter the time for picking and the more nutritional value they hold. And I'm sure that you know that since we've industrialized farming from the 50s, there's a lot less nutritional value in our fruits and vegetables that have been flown over and grown. GMO is another worm hole that we can dove into. Kobe would be sitting here all evening. So all of those things matter. And rather than a lot of people think that eating healthily means adding lots of layers into your food and your cooking and going to supermarket and buying all these superfood tinctures. I'm of the opposite opinion. Simplify. Buy less. Buy better quality sources of things locally, as seasonal as possible. And you know, you'll get them for a better price as well, because things that are grown in abundance are usually better priced right, though. 

 

[00:42:24] Yeah, that's true. Anything in season is always far less expensive. Exactly. 

 

[00:42:29] And, you know, it's there's a joy of eating strawberries until you sort of feel like a strawberry during June and July and then you wait all year to have them and there's an E.. It might be a simple sort of naive thought, but there's a there's a beauty in that all waiting for asparagus season to come and eating lots of wonderful asparagus or blood oranges is another favorite season of mine. And then, you know, enjoy, enjoy the fruits. And vegetables at the height, they will taste better as well, you know, you'll be you'll be surprised how amazing certain things can taste when they eat up the right side. 

 

[00:43:18] I agree. I love that. Well, we're running out of time, Bettina, but I wanted to ask you one final question, and that would be a lot of people, particularly over the past 11 weeks, have taken stock in their own personal businesses. 

 

[00:43:33] They've kind of re conversed with themselves over their values and their personal life. And I'm wondering if you've had such a dialog with yourself. If you can offer up maybe two or three pieces of advice or axioms that you've kind of unearthed during this time of reflection that everyone has had regarding either yourself or your journey or anything like that that we kind of end on. I usually say three pieces of advice, but if there's one or two, we'll take that as well. Is there anything that you proffer up to yourself in order to encourage or make things more enthusiastic or even just pieces of sage wisdom that you've come to? 

 

[00:44:13] Through throughout this period or just in general, both, but usually throughout this period, throughout the past, yes, there's been a pause for everyone. 

 

[00:44:22] Yeah, definitely. Let's start with. Well, I definitely it's been good for me to pose, I think in the last sort of two to three years I've been I've had an incredible workload. And I look back and I think, wow, how did I do that? It's definitely made me stop and think and enjoy the little things and have time to do things that I didn't have time to do before. So the pause button has been good for me. Bushell And I think it's it's been good for a lot of people. Taking time to cook, taking time to bake, taking time to be with your family. I think we're all far, far too busy that we sort of it's good and things happen when we polls ideas. A born creativity is born. So that's been really good. Was of advice. I always say. Perseverance and not giving up. And. Finding something that you're really passionate about and sticking with it, because in today's society, that's got also to do with who I was talking about before, is not having patience so that we're too busy. Things take time. And I have patience to allow them to take shape and to persevere and have persistence to follow your dreams. 

 

[00:46:00] Absolutely. I like that. These are solid pieces. I'm wondering, you kind of dropped. Are you still on the same Instagram handle? And can you mentioned it for everyone in the audience who would like to follow you? 

 

[00:46:10] Yes, absolutely. So it's Bettina's on the school kitchen. Or if you just put Bettina's kitchen, you'll find me. And yeah, it's just like daily inspiration's. A lot of stuff that I cook or we eat at home. I'll cook for clients. 

 

[00:46:27] That's wonderful. Well, we're out of time, but I want to say thank you so much for speaking with us today. Bettina, giving us all of your culinary and philosophical advice. I do appreciate your time. 

 

[00:46:38] Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. And for everyone. Really appreciate it. Absolutely. 

 

[00:46:44] And for everyone listening, we have been speaking with Bettina Campolucci Bordi. You can find out more about her work on w w w dot Bettina's kitchen dot com. And until we speak again next time. Thank you for listening and giving us your time. 

 

[00:47:00] Remember to eat clean, eat well, stay safe and always bet on yourself function.