#63 – Keen on Yoga Podcast with Bettina Campolucci Bordi

In this Keen on Yoga Podcast Adam talks with Bettina Campolucci
Bordi, wellness guru, retreat chef and creator of Bettina’s
Kitchen.  She is the author of Happy Food and her
second book 7 Day Vegan Challenge, out now, enables anyone
to include as many plant based recipes into their repertoire
as possible.


Over the last few years she has appeared on Saturday Kitchen, has
had recipes featured in the Telegraph and Sunday Times, been
endorsed by Jamie Oliver and Conde Nast.


Born in Denmark to a Bulgarian/Danish mother and a Norwegian
father Bettina spent her first 11 years in Tanzania and after
that in Sweden.  In Tanzania she learned from her mother how
to pick the best quality fruits and vegetables from the local
markets.  They would also visit a farmer with just a few
cows for fresh milk that her mother would magically turn into
butter, cream and yogurt.


Her father also cooked and would spend hours preparing his
ingredients and making sure each element of the dish was cooked
properly and just right.  From these experiences she learned
that good things take time.


Holidays spent in Bulgaria included time with her grandmother and
auntie who were both amazing cooks.  She recalls sitting at
the kitchen table at her auntie’s house watching her make
pineapple upside down cake, creme brulee, stews, and breads baked
from scratch.


Other summers were spent in Sweden with her paternal grandmother
in a tiny summer house in the woods. Also a keen cook with green
fingers who had all sorts of wonders growing in her garden,
cordials and pickling were her specialty.


The Beginning of Bettina’s Kitchen


Following struggles with personal health issues including PCOS
and endometriosis, she soon discovered that what she ate made a
significant impact on her physical health.  She found that
she was able to manage her conditions and discovered a profoundly
positive effect on her mental wellbeing, too.


For Bettina, cooking is a way of inspiring people to include and
cook with ingredients that can sometimes be daunting. Her aim is
to show others how food can be inspiring, where it comes from and
that cooking from scratch is the single most powerful thing you
can do for yourself and your family.


In 2011 she entered into the wellness industry running health
retreats in Spain as a way to spread her message. She began
sharing recipes on Instagram and slowly but surely people wanted
more and Bettina´s Kitchen was born.


Food Philosophy


Everything Bettina does is aligned with her philosophy around
food and wellness: that we should eat seasonally, locally and
from farm to table as much as we can. We should support small
businesses within our communities; we must use roots, shoots and
all! Cooking waste free is particularly important to her; and
above all the best plant food is fuss-free, simple, easy,
inexpensive.


Find Bettina


Combining healthy cooking with travel and wellness worldwide and
you can find her cooking on and training local kitchen teams with
Reclaim Yourself Retreats. Reclaim Yourself speciality is
introducing people to remote, magical places including Mongolia,
Iceland, and Zanzibar.


She also hosts retreats in her favourite place in the world,
Bali as well as her Retreat Chef Academies where you can cook
with learn from her experience.