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Kate Foster | Joyful seasonal food, intuitively created

@intuitivechefkate

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🫛Food with feeling
🫛Bespoke catering, feasts, pop-ups and workshops
🫛Founder, The Table Sherborne [coming soon]
🫛Somerset, Dorset and beyond

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I’ve got nothing against breakfast cereal. I love a crunchy nut. And occasionally bran flake. But most mornings there are a hundred more interesting things I could be eating. This took 2 minutes of madness, sparked by the blackberries in the fridge.. I wanted to bite and chew more than suck down something smooth like a yogurt and fruit bowl, so toast it was. And then playing with layers:
Sunflower seed butter
Then blackberries
Then honey
Nuts
Ah, sod it, a dollop of Greek yogurt
More honey
Cacao nibs
And some lil flowers just because they were on the side

This is how my cooking brain works. One thing. A feeling I want in my mouth or my mind or my body. What’s to hand. Just do it. No recipes, no rules. Just play.

And btw, a hill I will die on is that breakfast cereal is best eaten at the kitchen counter in the dead of night when you can’t sleep and want a comforting something while the world sleeps.

#intuitiveeating #intuitivecooking #breakfast #somersetchef taken in Frome, Somerset by @intuitivechefkate

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5 days ago

When did food get so serious? I’m all for beautiful food. That’s my thing. Thoughtful food, food made with care. But I also think food should be joyful. It should be colourful. And generous. And comforting. And playful. And sometimes a bit silly.

Same goes for cooking. Let’s play. Let’s share. Let’s stop following rules and start trusting what we know: what we want to eat, what we should be eating right now, in this season, how we want to feel, that joy is the point.

If you’d like to flex your intuitive cooking muscles and spend a day of unbridled joy in the kitchen with me, join me on Saturday 3 October at @justwildbarn for my intuitive cooking day retreat. Link in bio.

I declare there will be joy. And eating. And a new way of cooking. Because it doesn’t have to be all that serious.

#somersetchef #privatedining #cookingworkshop #joyfulfood by @intuitivechefkate

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5 days ago

Proof that everything is better when it’s tiny and covered in sparkles by @intuitivechefkate

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8 days ago

2 weeks, 2 very different retreats.

September took me first to Spain and then to Berkshire for two amazing retreats. As a chef, I feel passionately about the retreat environment as a sacred space that requires very thoughtful and intentional food. It’s always a huge honour to be trusted to bring that food to the table for retreat guests.

There’s so much more than just cooking that goes into it. There’s the nutritional thinking, ensuring that plant based meals are balanced and sufficiently nourishing. There’s the emotional intelligence that goes into considering emotional states throughout the retreat and which meals will best support guests as the week progresses. And there’s logistics galore, of course. But I love it.

Inspired always by the excellent @bettinas_kitchen_academy which I can’t recommend enough, and by @priyaparker’s The Art of Gathering, which I consider essential reading for any space holder, ever. I come back to it time and again.

Thank you @yogaformenopause and @aboutwellbeingltd for trusting me with your guests 💛

#privatechef #somersetchef #retreatchef #yogaretreat by @intuitivechefkate

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9 days ago

THIS. This is why I love September and especially September in Somerset. Thank you to @somerset.dahlias for feeding my obsession and giving me some inspo for feasting events at @thetablesherborne next year: a late summer Dahlia Dinner - a long table adorned with clashy-clashy dahlias, beautiful linens and ceramics… and a seasonal feast to share over a few mellow hours. Who’s in?

#somersetchef #somersetfood #dorsetfood #privatechef #supperclub taken in Frome, Somerset by @intuitivechefkate

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12 days ago

I recently declined to give a recipe to a guest at an event I cooked for. For me, a lifetime people pleaser, that was hard. But it was also important. The reason wasn’t protectionism or IP, it was because to give a recipe would have been inauthentic. Because there wasn’t really a recipe in the first place.

So after the initial “what do you mean, no?” moment, I explained that it’s not how I cook. And certainly not how I plan to teach from here. I explained that of the meal they’d just eaten - all 10 dishes and 30+ constituents when you think about sauces, oils, marinades etc. - I’d never made a single dishes exactly as they’d eaten it before. Variations, yes. But that dish? Served that way? No.

That’s how I cook. Inspired by the season, the pantry, the produce, the mouths I’ll feed, the feeling, the room, the vibe. No recipe can meet that perfectly. I’m not saying it always works. And I’m not saying I never use or write recipes (I’m delighted to share some autumn favourites in this month’s @somersetlifemagazine for example). I’m saying that the food experiences I create are exactly that: an experience for that moment in time. With food to match. And that, to me, is what’s so beautiful about being lucky enough to cook for a living.

But just because I can’t give you the recipe doesn’t meant I won’t show you how. If you’re interested in learning how to lean into this style of cooking - trusting your instincts, inspirations and memories more than a cookbook - come and join me at @justwildbarn on Saturday 3 October for my first Intuitive Cooking Day Retreat. Think of it as a playground, a permission slip, a hugely supportive and encouraging space to get intuitive, to cook with freedom and joy and possibility, no matter your cooking ability.

Link in the bio or message me for more. And here’s my intuitive breakfast today: a baby blueberry galette by leftovers and the stunning plates I got from @foundbysashawilkins this summer.

#intuitivecooking #intuitivechef #somersetfood #cookingretreat #workshop by @intuitivechefkate

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15 days ago

Let’s talk about cooking freestyle. No recipes, no big expectation or plan, just a moment of inspiration and the rest follows. I mean walking into a kitchen, spotting a beautiful ingredient and thinking…

“Ooh. I want to do something with THAT.”

Sound terrifying? Or like a fever dream so far removed from reality you’re wondering if I’ve lost the plot?

Well, believe me, it’s the dreamiest, most joyful and often most efficient and cost-effective way to cook. And it’s the idea behind my first Intuitive Cooking day retreat.

A whole day devoted not to learning how or what to cook, but to becoming more confident about finding your own way there. A day that equips you to trust yourself, and become the cook you were always meant to be.

I’m bringing an abundant autumn pantry, and I’ll be inviting you to taste, talk and question. There’ll be demonstrations, experimentation and plenty of help from me. And eventually we’ll bring everything we’ve created to one long table and eat it together.

No prescribed recipes. No right answers, or wrong ones for that matter. Just the happiest day in a gorgeous kitchen that’ll give your cooking mojo the boost it perhaps needs.

It’s going to be wonderful.

Saturday 3 October | Just Wild Barn, Chew Stoke (near Bristol and Bath)

Details via the link in my bio

#cookinginspiration #bristolfood #somersetchef #somersetfood #cookwithme

📸 By the wonderful @pantryandplace at Just Wild Barn, August 2026 taken in Chew Stoke by @intuitivechefkate

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20 days ago

I’m really not a baker but a special man deserves a special cake. This is chocolate and whisky cake with salted vanilla Italian buttercream in honour of my dad’s 80th today. He’s the kindest man I know, and I’m so proud of the life he’s created for himself here in Somerset after a lifetime up north. 80 years young and still running Dad’s Taxis, keeping us calm, making us laugh, playing bridge, taking award winning photos and bringing us joy. To the man who is always prepared to be delighted rather than disappointed, you deserve ALL of the delights in life. We love you to bits 💛 by @intuitivechefkate

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21 days ago

whimsy table surrounded by flowers by @intuitivechefkate

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a month ago

It’s been a summer for ages. I honestly cannot remember a more light, fun, nourishing and joyful summer, so this is one I’ll hold onto. I think most precious of all has been the people: wonderful collaborators like @idleandwonder and @gem_hicks_photography, friends old and new who are so genuinely excited by what I do, the clients who invite me into their homes and most meaningful moments and trust me to feed everyone beautifully, the team who bring such energy and commitment to their work with me, and the family who cheer me on.

This year I am ravenous for creative adventures, and somehow they keep appearing. I think it all makes me better and braver at what I do, so I’m saying yes a lot, trusting the process and remembering it’s not that deep, really.

As September begins, I’m off to the mountains of Spain to cook for a beautiful yoga retreat, before returning to another few retreats closer to home. And all the while, a bigger project is taking root. Slowly, but very surely. I can’t wait to share more soon.

Farewell, summer 2026. You’ve been an absolute peach.

#cheflife #somersetchef #privatechef by @intuitivechefkate

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a month ago

I think we can all agree that slow can be a very good thing. And especially when it comes to how we nourish ourselves: good food - from the grain to the plate - doesn’t happen fast. In a world that’s relentlessly realtime, the magic is in the beat we take to consider where we source our food from and how we prepare it. @1joissa and I invite you to explore that magic with us and @tribezerowaste at @sheepdrove on 18 September. And I’m particularly excited to unveil the menu I’ve created, to bring the slow, quiet life to the table:

Sourdough focaccia, three ways
Naturally neon Bromham pickles
Velvety miso-white bean soup, plum umeboshi

Pasture-raised roast chicken, chermoula
Whole roasted Bromham cauliflowers with rose harissa, green tahini sauce
Mujadara (Middle Eastern rice, lentils and caramelised onions)
Whipped feta, raw and roasted tomatoes, smoked almonds
Heritage carrot and beetroot slaw, ginger-cider dressing
Local leaves, figs, black garlic vinaigrette

Apple and rosemary sorbet

So looking forward to bringing the softest, mellowest tones of early autumn to the table in every plate 🌾🙌
#somersetchef #eventchef #dayretreat #lambourn taken in Sheepdrove Organic Farm & Green Events Venue by @intuitivechefkate

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a month ago

cocktail hour by the pond before summer is over

pictures by @edschofieldphoto by @intuitivechefkate

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a month ago