Since I was little, food has always been my love language. I have had a strong connection with food ever since I can remember, whether it was cooking or eating.
I have been fortunate to always be surrounded by a family of amazing cooks, so it’s no surprise that I ended up in the food service industry. Since I was a teenager I have spent 10 years working in various cafe’s around Adelaide, working alongside talented Barista’s and Chef’s. My first proper job in the hospitality industry was at a quaint coffee specialty espresso bar in the Adelaide CBD called “Signature: A Fusion of Coffee”. I was trained by 3 very talented Chef’s who showed me the ropes of commercial cooking amongst everything else required to know about hospitality, including working alongside management and Barista’s. Since then I ventured to working in other espresso’s bars, cooking in the Adelaide Hills to eventually managing a very busy and successful cafe in the Eastern suburbs. After my decade’s experience in the hospitality, I decided I wanted a career change. Both my partner and I decided to enroll into TAFE Urrbrae to study Conservation & Land Management, we then studied Horticulture not long afterwards. This deepened my connection with the natural world. We already had strong environmental ethics, however our studies opened our eyes to what more we could do and the choices we make both inside and outside of the business.
For 9 years now I have been gluten intolerant and my partner has been dairy intolerant ever since we got together in 2013. It taught me how to cook without the basics of gluten and dairy. It was a challenge at first, but as always I got used to it. Later on he developed more food irritants where we had to cut out more foods such as eggs, nuts, soy and many more. Whilst he was ready to admit defeat not being able to eat anything delicious ever again, I made it my mission to create food that was allergy friendly and tasty. That experience made me realize how much of a common issue it has become and how difficult it is to find food that cover various allergies. After having many conversations with different people I received a lot of comments how they would love to buy my food if I had a business, well fast forward to now and that is where Nature’s Basket was created. With our passion for the natural world, wholefood ingredients and a focus on being inclusive to the most common allergies, we have made it our mission to provide Adelaide delicious tasting baked goods that you wouldn’t even know are allergy friendly.
