Inspired by Nature /

Alesha Bilbrough-Collins is creating beautiful organic food, with a huge environmental conscience.

Organic, seasonal cooking with Alesha Bilbrough-Collins of BearLion Foods

Alesha

Bilbrough-Collins of BearLion Foods is passionate about ‘real food and less waste’, placing an emphasis on working with, and eating, organically-grown fruit and vegetables from local producers and markets. ‘Seasonal cooking is so important,’ she explains. ‘Food tastes so much better when it’s picked at its best. I love summer when I can preserve and pickle the wealth of produce available and continue the flavours into the other cooler months,’ she explains.

Alesha’s strong food beliefs trace back to her childhood, in Christchurch and wider Canterbury where she remembers weekends filled with hunting trips with her father and whizzing up preserves or pickles in the kitchen with her mother.

After school she studied cooking at Christchurch’s CPIT and set sail for the UK and Australia to work as a chef. On her return to New Zealand she had a market stall at the Christchurch Farmers’ Market and will be remembered for her big rustic bowls filled with colourful delicious salads ‘made with love’.

From there she started her own food company, BearLion Foods in 2012, influenced by her time with the Ottolenghi and Gordon Ramsay Groups in the UK. ‘I had observed a gap in the local food market here [Christchurch] between the fine dining experience and a healthy style of food,’ she explains. Food that people could actually afford.

Before she could start her business she suffered health issues, which turned out to be chemical poisoning; further influencing her decision to source only the best ingredients from nature.

‘I strive to use 100 per cent organic produce, in season and local; I’m constantly looking for ways to achieve zero waste in my business. I like to share my philosophy on social media and include handy hints on how others can run their kitchens and homes environmentally and sustainably.

‘Being environmentally aware makes sense, everything we use is provided to us by the earth and we have no reason not to respect that!’