Bettina Campolucci Bordi – Favourite Things

Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and pastimes that make them who they are.

Bettina Campolucci Bordi is a chef, recipe developer and founder of Bettina’s Kitchen. She has written three cookbooks, Happy Food, 7 Day Vegan challenge and Celebrate, which is out in September. She is a freelance retreat chef within the wellness industry and runs Bettina’s Kitchen Chef Academy which focuses on teaching aspiring retreat-chefs sustainable and waste free principles. 

These are a few of her favourite things…

Mudlarking

I have recently discovered mudlarking. Near Bank and the Millenium Bridge in London, you can walk along the banks of the Thames and look for treasure. Because there is such a strong current, everytime it is low tide lots of things are washed up; we walk along the banks and find ceramics and other relics from the Roman and Tudor times. It is actually very therapeutic and it’s a lovely side of town – we do that for a couple of hours and then go to Borough market. I have an eight-year-old daughter and she thinks it is quite exciting, if you Google the stories of what people have found it is incredible. We have only found pieces of ceramic so far…

Toast

I often get asked what my favourite food is and it is toast. I see it as such a great vessel to put things on and if you have two pieces you can have something sweet on one and something savoury on the other; two meals on one plate. The options are limitless. I am the sort of person who gets obsessed with a certain flavour. When I lived in Spain for many years my go-to topping was avocado, because the avocados in Spain are incredible. Hummus with vegetables is also a go-to. You can go pretty crazy with your toppings, I definitely go over the top.

Travel

It has been really weird not travelling over the last year. Before, I travelled so much for work and for personal trips. I have done some pretty epic travelling to Bali, The Azores and Costa Rica for work retreats as I work a lot in the wellness industry. I also have family dotted around in Spain and Norway. Instead of plane food, I like to make double decker bento boxes with something sweet and savoury for us all if I am travelling with my family. Surprisingly they always make it through security, as long as it’s nothing too runny. Jumping on a plane used to be like jumping in a car, so spending this much time at home has been weird but also really nice as it slows everything down. 

Growing things

We have grown lots of plants from seed with my daughter recently. At the start of lockdown, I had a couple of plants but now the house is full of them and they are thriving and green. They are like my little babies, I really enjoy looking after them. We have been growing all the seedlings indoors and we will plant them outdoors when the weather is a little better; we have cucumbers, courgettes, pansies, basil, tomatoes, aubergine and peas. I think the secret to keeping the plants alive is not over watering them. 

Our lockdown kitten 

We got a lockdown cat called Lily. We aren’t sure what breed she is but she has a massive fluffy tail and has brought so much joy to our house. We are all obsessed with her. She is so cute and has so much character. It is really good timing to get a new pet as you need those initial few months with your pet when they are little babies. We also have a fifteen year old dog called Sophie and it has been nice spending more time with both animals. The kitten is my cat alarm, she lies on my chest and vibrates in the mornings at 5.30 am (to my dismay on Saturday and Sunday). She does that for a couple of hours and then decides it’s time to get up and starts nibbling me.