Brazil’s Camilla Marcus on Intentional Cooking and a Backyard Lunch

Chef and author Camilla Marcus recently hosted a backyard lunch in Los Angeles to celebrate the launch of her cookbook, My Regenerative Kitchen. The gathering, held under the trees with a few friends, featured plant-based dishes from the book, including tartines, a crunchy fennel salad, and rose chocolate bark. Natural wine was served alongside the meal.

Marcus, a regenerative chef and founder of west~bourne, is also a mother of four. Her cooking philosophy centers on improvisation, using the farmers market as a guide. She describes her approach as freeing rather than stressful, comparing it to jazz music where the path of the notes is not predetermined.

Her book argues that everyday food choices are a direct way to engage in climate action. The changes it promotes are small and cumulative, not a complete lifestyle overhaul. Marcus’s core belief is that what is good for the soil is better for human health.

Zero-Waste Kitchen Tips

Marcus shared several practical tips for reducing waste in the kitchen. She recommends replacing paper towels with washable cloth towels. For food storage, she suggests using beeswax wraps instead of plastic wrap, and storing dry goods in glass jars or metal tins. Silicone bags can replace disposable plastic bags.

She advises using entire vegetables, including fennel fronds and stalks, and avoiding unnecessary peeling. Before discarding any food scraps, she asks if they can add flavor to a broth or sauce. Onion peels, herb stems, and cheese rinds are all candidates for this. Items that cannot be cooked should be composted.

For cleaning, Marcus points to nontoxic brands like Koala Eco, Branch Basics, and Grove Collaborative. She recommends starting composting with a countertop bin, noting that composting produces 20 times fewer greenhouse gases than sending food waste to a landfill.

To the writer, these practices felt less like discipline and more like a natural part of how Marcus moves through the world: paying attention, wasting nothing, and finding pleasure in the process. The lunch menu included a whole stalk or bulb salad, tartines with heirloom tomato and blue cheese, a spring pea gazpacho, and a dark chocolate bark with bee pollen and rose petals.