THE APOTHECARY CHEF is a celebration of the fragrance and flavour of herbs, flowers, leaves, seeds, fruit, roots and pollens, all containing beneficial nutrients, whether harvested from faraway fields and waters, gathered at the local farmers’ market, pulled from a garden bed, or pinched from the kitchen window box. These pages contain plant-based ingredients that are mixed, matched and blended for ultimate flavour, nutritional value and deliciousness!

My father’s veggie garden was planted into my memory from the age of six. He taught me how to make thumb-sized holes in the soil so many inches apart then drop two tiny seeds into the earth and cover just so. As the plants and flowers flourished, I was mesmerised by the rich colours, inspiring me to sketch rainbows into my childish signature, fully and joyfully aware of the gift to see colours.

Into adulthood, and as a chef, I also discovered how to smell and taste colour, through the use of these fragrant herbs, plants and flowers. Inspiration came from an array of softly scented pink English pea petals – their shocking bright green pods, stems and windy tendrils wrapped around the garden fence stretching to the sun.

The addictive scent of sun-ripened backyard tomato vines as you reach for that heavy, bright red, homegrown tomato, will have you craving a flavoursome ‘no recipe’ seasonal plate of sliced rounds, topped with a handful of petite yellow, red, purple and green tomatoes, sprinkled with a few grains of mineral-rich sea salt flakes, bright green bruised basil leaves, a splash of balsamic vinegar, drops of Spanish cold-pressed olive oil, then finished with a few tiny white basil flowers floating on the shiny oil surface. Here is a little bit of heaven.