My first initiation into belonging.

Hello beautiful

When I was 21, I worked in a café that was about ten years ahead of its time. Think gluten-free before it was cool, paleo before Pete Evans went rogue, and absolutely no preservatives, no additives, no crap you couldn’t pronounce.

They made the kind of food that made your insides feel like they’d just done a yoga class.

Before that job, I hadn’t really grown up in a home where food prep was a ritual. We ate well, sure - but not with that deep, European-style reverence for the kitchen as a sacred gathering place.

Then came Suzanne. The head chef. Part magician, part mother hen, part philosopher with a chef’s knife. And it was in that kitchen - over the hum of the stove and the rhythm of chopping boards - that I learned one of life’s great secrets:

Nourishment isn’t just about what’s on the plate. It’s in the hands that make it. The connection built while waiting for something to bubble or rise.

I didn’t realise it then, but that was where I first learned how to truly nourish myself. Through communal preparation. Through curiosity about where my food came from. Through the presence required to create something with love.

Now, in my forties, I see how much of that kitchen has stayed with me - not just in how I feed my family, but in how I build community.

Because honestly? That’s what THE PLACE feels like. A giant, sacred kitchen. Where we all bring our daily ingredients, our energy, our moods, our ideas and co-create something nutrient-dense and soul-filling.

There’s laughter and mess, depth and flavour, and the kind of magic that only happens when people gather with purpose and presence.

I didn’t know it back then, but Suz wasn’t just teaching me how to cook - she was teaching me how to belong. And that’s the essence of THE PLACE.

A space to belong. To nourish. To create something together that feels sacred and delicious and real.

Find your space in THE PLACE here

Big love,