That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Natalia Rudin

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Chef Natalia Rudin joins Gaby for a chat about all things food and joy! (pickles are discussed, OBVS) Natalia has been a private chef for many years, but just recently published her first cook book. This is a dream come true for her - and she tells Gaby all about her journey, her inspirations and why she wants to make healthy food delicious for all. She also shares a few of her favourite recipes too!Remember you can watch each of our episodes - and our bonus Show n Tell extras - on our YouTube channel! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Natalia Rudin, this book, your debut cookbook, is stunning. Thank you. Blood, sweat and tears, gone into it. Does it feel really weird to have it out there now? Yeah, I mean, it's getting closer and closer to the publication date. And honestly, every day a new pinch me moment happens. I mean, I've been working on this for close to two years now and to finally see it in the flesh is just, it's so.

so wild because before it was all in my imagination and also on a PDF and my laptop. Yes. I just seeing it in just feeling it, the textures. I know. Oh, no, okay, there's Herbie beans with roasted broccoli. But the thing is, on Instagram, really weirdly, okay, I didn't realise, I thought I was following you. This is a, this is a weird thing. Because I get your, I get your feed up and I, but I check your recipes all the time. Oh, thank you. No, I really, I really, really do. And I love what you do. And you're mainly plant-based, which I also like.

But you do think this is a really... You do things with beans. No. I don't think anybody else does with beans. I mean, what's something that's quite funny is, the first time I ever really got recognised sort of in public was at a festival at all points east in Victoria Park. Obviously, it's a condensed space of younger people.

And seven people came up to me. like, you're the bean girl. Beans. Oh, I'm not the only one. It's so funny. So naturally, there's a lot of beans on there. Lots of beans. Congratulations. Easy, comforting, mostly plant-based recipes for busy people.

What I love about your Instagram feed is it's, it looks so possible for me to cook any of the things and make them look like that. Well, that's music to my ears. Because it's not, oh, look, how fancy we can make it all. It's just, you know what? I've been a personal chef. This is what I want to now do. Here's the here are the recipes. Absolutely. I think it's just, you know, food doesn't have to be pretentious. At the end of the day, food is fuel. I eat to feel good. I live to eat as well. And I think you can have both sides of the coin. You can have the stuff that's just slapped ash. You've thrown together and it's five ingredients. It might be quite simple, but it's delicious. And then you can have the more fancy stuff. So that book is kind of aiming to satisfy all those needs. I think it's going to make a lot of people very happy this. I really hope so.

Because it's as if you're looking after everybody. Everyone's my client. Is that how you think of it all? Yeah, I mean, I think something... I've just seen your spicy Korean tofu rice bowl. Yeah, really... That's a favourite of mine. I'll close it.

Yeah, so is that what you want? I think... Just to make everybody... Well, I mean... Yeah, absolutely. I think people in this day and age, less and less people actually cook for themselves. and I think it's so important to show people how easy it is

to just have a few basic ingredients in the fridge at all times or in your cupboard that you can always throw something together. It doesn't always have to come from Deliveroo. I love Deliveroo. It has a time and a place or any... Did they sponsor you? They don't, I know. Cut that out.

No, please sponsor me. Delivery services, shall we say. I love a delivery service. But I do think more people need to be shown how easy it is to actually cook from scratch because, you know, we're in a big, era of highly processed foods and it's not right there's a lot of sodium and stuff like that so it's just important to show people you know beans it's so simple have them in a jar they live

forever in your cupboard they will not go off i mean they probably do but they won't and if you can use those with a couple of fresh ingredients and create a really delicious wholesome meal it's rich in fiber you've got your whatever veg you're using it's so simple and so easy and i just want to show as many people as possible so okay obviously it's back to how this all came about and you're very honest with your story you say that on all your social media but you were a personal chef I was a personal chef but before that how did all of that come about it was kind of I think I've always loved cooking and I take after my mother in the sense that the way that I show love for people is through like acts of

service and my mum used to do that for me cooking and so I naturally have just taken that in my stride. I absolutely adore cooking for people at university. I was always inviting friends around. We would do like fajitas and stuff like that. It just makes me so happy. And when I finished university, studied sociology, didn't really know what I wanted to do going in, picked it out of a hat, and then finished studying. And I just knew I wasn't meant for an office job. I just knew that I'm more of a creative. I'm not, you know, I can excel academically, but I do have to really try. doesn't come naturally sadly and I finished

uni and I didn't know what to do and I decided to take another year off in the hopes of sort of figuring that out and I bought a one-way ticket to India which my mum hated I read that about me and I've seen you talking about that as a mum I can see

that I would be with the girls oh you're sure one way come on and I went by myself on your own so she really I think it was one of those moments where she was like, no matter what I say, I know I can't stop you, you're just going to have to do it.

But she made me promise, I had to call her every day. And if I didn't call her for a day, she'd answer the phone cry. It was awful. I felt really bad for her. I think I put her through a lot of stress. But when I was there,

I, my mental state when I left wasn't amazing. My parents went through quite a messy divorce. I was at that tender age of sort of like your early 20s where you really don't know what you want to do. And then there's people are excelling around you. and there's so much pressure of life. But it's all compare, compare, compare, judge, judge. I wish people would take a step back and not do that.

It's difficult to say. It is really hard. It is really hard. And in hindsight, I think, like, look how I've landed now. Like, I shouldn't have stressed. But at the time, I was really stressed. Which is normal, of course. So I went to India and spent 90% of my time outdoors,

did a lot of yoga, was eating really natural whole food ingredients. I pretty much was having curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. every day for about seven months and I just, it made me feel so good I can't explain it, I think it was just what I needed at the time and also when you go to India everyone's quite spiritual

and they like to talk about their feelings and it just was like a huge therapy session for me and it came back and I just thought I need to share this, I just this feeling that that experience has given me I want to give that to people so I started harassing a lot of people please let me cook for you I promise

I'll do a good job. And one person took a chance on me and it just got really got the ball rolling and she set a few goals. I decided to add exercise and yoga into it so that it kind of set me apart from your average personal chef. Hold on. So were you teaching people how to do it?

Were you doing yoga while cooking? Well, it depends what day you catch me on, really. No, I'm joking. It was, yeah, we'd wake up. I'd do normally like a session of yoga or exercise in the morning and then I would make breakfast and then carry on. Lovely. But it was just something a little bit different

and it was my experience shared. You know, that's what I was doing. That's what made me feel good. So I wanted to be able to give that to my clients. I did my yoga teacher training and got my qualifications, did a diploma as a health and nutrition coach. So I just was slowly building my portfolio of what I could bring to the table. But actually even the sociology that you learned.

I remember doing it at very level. I loved sociology, but I've sort of used it. as a broadcaster as a presenter? Absolutely. It's about what's going on. Exactly. Yeah, I do think it wasn't totally useless. But it's just, it's funny.

I mean, I would never have thought that this would be where I was 10 years ago. But it's happened. And I do think every choice I made has led to this moment. Like doing sociology at uni definitely helped. So you were a personal chef. Very, very busy and doing all of that. But then you decided to go public. Go public.

And be very open and honest. You talk about your parents divorced. You talk about your partner now and your fiancé. You talk about some of the struggles that you've had. But was it a conscious decision? Did you say, did you just sort of look at yourself in the mirror and say, I'm going to become a social media sensation? I mean, how did, and also it's grown and grown and grown.

but very quickly. So it's from where you were to where you are now is quite fast and quite big. Yeah, I'm delighted to say because I think you're wonderful. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's, I'm still waiting to wake up, to be honest, it's crazy. But I don't think, so I started my journey as a personal chef

and at the same time as starting that, I was like, well, I'm making all this really nice food. I may as well share it on social media, but that was always more on the back burner because I wanted to build my career as a chef first. And then after years, so I was, I mean, years, it wasn't, it was six years. I was a personal chef for six years, but the way that I worked was I was on short-term clients. So I would do a month, six weeks, eight weeks, three months, all.

Anywhere. Anywhere. Mostly in the Bahamas, which is quite nice. Awful. Really, I mean, I, you know, doing yoga and cooking food in the Bahamas, really tough. Fresh coconuts, I mean, honestly, no, I'm joking. I mean, it was amazing. Obviously, it was, yeah, it was, there's no, I have no complaints. there and I met some incredible people who really helped shape my business as well. But obviously I was flying back and forth a lot, different time zones, no social life.

I mean, luckily I had my partner because otherwise I don't think I'd probably still be single. But we never saw each other, never saw my family. The work life balance was non-existent. And I began to struggle within my body as well. I had a really bad, I had an eating disorder, which I was kind of mass. by trying to be showing everyone this is what you should be doing when it was like a deflection thing, if you know what I mean, sort of projecting what I wanted to be doing for myself.

And how is that now? Good, really good. I feel finally like I'm in a place where that's in the past and that's kind of why I'm a bit more open to talking about it. I think sometimes it's harder to talk about when you're going through it. But also it's something that you carry with you throughout life. I mean, you know, I've got friends of mine who were bulimic, were anorexic and other things as well, body dysmorphia.

And they talk about it really openly now and they say, I still will always say I'm in recovery. Like a friend of mine who's an alcoholic, even though she hasn't drunk for 21 years, she still says it. You're always in recovery. And that's exactly. And the more that people do talk about it, the better. It really is.

I think it's something that's so vitally important to talk about. I cannot agree more. It's, I think, you know, there's definitely a lot of shame around it. I don't feel good about the fact that I experienced that but I don't think you should hide your wounds. I think you've got to be really open about things and it's wonderful that people talk now. Yeah, I think so too because when I was young, no one was really talking about it or when I was younger, shall we say, I mean I'm only 30, but 10 years ago when those thoughts were kind of coming into my head, it was you had to be thin.

There was nothing else about it. That was all the media. It was all like everyone was super thin. No one spoke about eating disorders and I'm sure a lot of people that I was saying, friends with were struggling with them but none of us talked about it. Isn't that sad? Whereas now, yeah, it is. It's incredibly sad but now I'm such a huge advocate for being really open about it. It's interesting because many years ago

in the 90s and the naughties, mainly in the 90s, when you were tiny weenie wee. They used to do a circle of shame around somebody's fat. I grew up reading Heat magazine where they'd have two people on the front cover, one on the beach and one in a, and it was, that's

what, that's ingrained in my behaviours as a child. So, I mean, it's no surprise, obviously, but I'm a huge advocate for being open about it, but at the same time, I'm very careful of how much I say, because I don't want to trigger anyone. I don't want to talk too deeply about my experience because I don't want to give anyone ideas. No, but it's also incredibly personal to you, but the fact that you say that you went through it and the fact that you say, you know, other people went through it, and that you're open and saying, you know what, I've coped and I'm here. Yeah. It's really important because I think a lot of people who are right in the depths of it

don't know how they're ever going to be. Absolutely. It is. So it's wonderful that you're open. Thank you. No, thank you for honesty. I think you can't, that you should eliminate the shame around it and just, I always say like it's not what happens,

it's how you move on from it. Absolutely. I think it's incredible. I really do what you have done with your life and you, I think you're very focused. Thank you. Very disciplined. And I mean that as a compliment.

When people always say to me, oh, you're very disciplined about what you know. I think that's good. I think it's an important thing to be. So, right, let's get on to becoming the internet sensation. That sounds so funny, doesn't it? I know. She's an internet sensation. She's a social. And I think the word influencers become tainted a bit.

Yeah, I mean, I would say that I'm a content creator. Nice. Keep saying that. Yeah, I wouldn't say, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with influences, but I think No, neither do I. For me, I look at an influencer as someone who's sort of saying, like, maybe buy these clothes or, I don't know, go on this holiday destination. Whereas I'm making recipes, it feels a bit more tangible.

I don't know. Okay, so you come up with a recipe. Yeah. So I would like to know, but being because you're a content creator, I would like to know how many times you have to actually taste something before you put it out there for all of us to try. And do you and your fiancée sit there and do you go, No, that's not right.

The beans aren't cooking the right way. I just love sort of an insight into that craziness. Well, I think at the beginning, right at the start, I used to test recipes before shooting them. Now I just shoot them as a test, because it's more time efficient. Oh, I like that. If it works out, then you don't have to then do it again. If it doesn't work out, you have like a bog standard meal that maybe needs a few tweaks.

But, you know, I think I'm very efficient with my time now. It used to be, it used to take me hours to do everything. And now I think because I've been doing it full time for about two and a half years now, or coming up to two and a half years, my efficiency rate is I just, I wake up, I take the dog for a walk, I come home, I bang out three recipes. I set aside certain days for filming and then I'll try. You do three recipes when you come in, in the morning? Usually start around 10, 30, 11 and then I'd finish around 3, 4 o'clock.

New recipes. You come up with three new recipes every day? Not every day, but I would say I try and set aside two days for filming a week. So you come up with six new recipes a week? I post three times a week. I have to. This is my job. I know, but that's a lot of new food. Yeah.

Well, I think, you know, obviously you're never going to come up with an original recipe. Someone will have made a variation of it somewhere. But there's, and I think also, you know, things are often variations of themselves. I mean, I'm sure I've probably made a recipe twice in the three years that I've been doing it and not realised. It sounds pretty staggering. Yeah, I guess. That is cool. Okay.

Right. So I, it's, I think you've already given us away. But I always ask people, when they bring out a cookbook, their favorite recipe. It's like, it's like children, you don't read, you're not allowed favorite. Because the other recipes will be very upset. I know. But, oh, this looks really good. Savory black bean breakfast bowl.

Oh, that is a good one. I love savory breakfast. Me too. Nice granola as well with some Greek yogurt. There's a granola recipe in there as well. Oh, she's got it all. All sauces and dressings. I'm obsessed.

I've made your salty caper and herb dressing. Oh, it's so good. I have it on literally everything. It's so good. No, I have it on everything. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's so good on me. It's, yeah.

Absolutely. It's so good on fish. It's really good. Yes, your favourite recipe, not mine, your favourite recipe of yours. Go on, just chink. I'm a big pasta girlie. I love my pasta. For me, that's something I make pretty much three, four times a week because it's so easy and quick.

I love the front cover recipe, the pistachio and herb mafaldina. And actually, that was inspired by one of my friends. She made something quite similar for me, and I was like, I'm stealing that. Oh, I love that. But that's one of my favorites. And then there's also a pesto beans recipe, which is perfect for the spring, especially now.

Why so the asparagus isn't season? That's a big favourite of mine. It's so good. See, this is really embarrassing. Did you just hear that? Will, did you just hear my stomach? Oh, my word. I'm obsessed with miso.

Yeah. This is fab, because if you make that... Smash miso butter beans and crispy soy mushrooms. Okay, because I have an allergy to wheat. I use Tamari. Oh, yeah. I can just put Tamari on everything. Oh, did it again!

Oh, that's really embarrassing. Will, are you sure you didn't hear it? Oh, that's so embarrassing. I do have little tips and tricks so that if you are gluten-free or anything, it's all written in the ingredients so that you can make your substitutes. But this is great.

If you do that at a dinner party, people will assume it's Middle Eastern rather than Asian flavours. And it's always a surprise. It's a good talking point. More miso. Yeah. A big miso gal.

I love it. Love a bit of miso. Okay, so now the book, let's go, let's get on to the book because the lovely footage of you going to the publisher, you know, all of it. How did the book come about then? Was it you knocking or did they come knocking? They came knocking. Yes, I thought it was hoping.

Yes, huge, yeah. I mean, honestly it was, I remember. So the way that it happened was it was actually probably to the day, this day, two years ago. Oh, wow. Because it was right before my mum's birthday and my mum's birthday is on Friday. Oh, happy birthday to your mum. What's your mum's name? Amanda. Amanda, happy birthday Amanda. When this goes out, it would have been a week earlier. Yeah. A few days ago. Well, there you go. Belated birthday. Yes. So it was, it was, we were going away for the weekend. My stepdad was very sweet and did a huge surprise for her. And she didn't know we were coming. And my oldest

brother lives in Vienna and he flew over secretly and we went away to this lovely hotel in the countryside and she went and sat down for lunch and we all jumped out and I had the meeting the day before with my literary agent the Eve White agency who have been amazing and they phoned me and they said you know we really think you could make a book and we'd love to be your literary agents and like what are your thoughts and I just remember being like yeah that would be great Lovely. And then hung up and just burst into tears. And then went the next day, surprised my mum

and then was able to say, like, I think I'm writing a cookbook. So it was just a really special moment. Kind of like a... I don't want to say a gift for her because obviously it was me writing a bit. I think she was really proud. That must literally be to the day

because today, it's her birthday in three days. So it's literally to the day. So, yeah, it was really, really special. And then from there, We wrote the proposal. I came up with the idea to do the chapters in different timeframes because like I said, I just want to show everyone how easy it is to throw something together no matter the time you have.

So it's 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour less, an hour more, so on and so forth. We wrote the proposal, sent it out to all the publishers, and then it went to auction, which was cool. That's fantastic. And now it's a book. It's a real book. And when it comes out, it will be scary for it. because suddenly your baby is in,

my stomach did it again. That's so embarrassing. I saw crispy Obesim. This is ridiculous. This is really embarrassing. Okay. It's happening there and again my stomach. That's a great recipe for anyone who doesn't like Objean

because it's so crisp. It kind of eliminates the textual difficulties that people have with it. But you see, I'll tell you, you have me with the pickled red onion. Yeah. Same, on everything. But I'm obsessed with pickles. Everyone's bored. On this podcast I talk about, on every radio show I do, every television show I do,

I go on about pickles. A pickle is good. A pickle a day. No? I've got the whole top shelf in my fridge, all different pickles. What's your favourite? Right, well, pickled cucumbers I love. So good.

I love pickled garlic. I love pickled garlic. I have pickled red onion. I've got pickled. red cabbage. I'm just looking at. I've got pickled garlic, pure red garlic. I've got pickled ginger and garlic. I've got I'm, I've got pickle, a chef on Morning Live made me some pickle Brussels sprouts for Christmas. Oh, quite crunchy. Really good. Lovely. Your favourite pickle?

I love a pickled onion. I just love a pickled onion. I just love a pickled onion. Pickled red onion, but I actually also love the little ones, the eyeballs. Yeah. They used to scare me as a child and now I can't get enough of them. Okay, we have to stop talking about. Get the lady some lunch. This is absolutely ridiculous. Well, look, huge congratulations.

Thank you so much. And your private life as well, congratulations because you're engaged. Thank you. Your lovely partner. Love with my life. Does he find all of this incredible? I mean, yeah, it's just a huge ride for both of us. He's, he's, I could, can confidently say I could not have done it without him.

He has been so supportive and amazing and let me lean on him when I really needed to. And yeah, he's just been great. And also he's like my number one recipe tester. He tastes everything and lets me know if it's good or bad. Does he, is he honest with you? He's very diplomatic. He says, it's not my favourite. Oh, that's okay.

Good lie. Good lie. If he doesn't like something or he'll be like, you've done better. So how do, where do you, because as I said, I think you're very disciplined. and for all the right reasons. Where do you see this next step going? How would you like it to go? We can all put it out there.

I mean, I would love to... So I wrote this book a year and seven months ago, eight months ago now probably. I'd love to write a second book. We'll put that in the ether. Hopefully someone grabs onto it. Have you started it? No, not yet. Oh, you haven't?

Okay. Well, this one isn't even on the shelves yet. So I think, you know, let's not run before we can walk. But hopefully we're running very soon. And I think I just want to keep up with making recipes on socials. I really love it. I love the community that's come with it. And I love, you know, when I sort of spoke to the world, shall we say, about the struggles that I was going through.

It really opened a space for a lot of people to talk to me about theirs and kind of just made this really wonderful community behind closed doors that I would feel really lost without. So that's really my main focus is just to keep giving recipes. out for them. And I don't know, I'm open to anything really. I think, you know, when you make a plan, it doesn't always happen. So I like to just see where the cards fall. Hopefully it's in a good place. Wonderful, Natalie. Natalia, I'd say Natalia. Natalia, thank you very much. Thank you. So lovely to meet you. You too. Thank you so much for having me. Bean lady. The Bean lady. The Bean lady.