About the Author

If cooking is an art and baking is a science, NATASHA MACALLER is a pastry chef who flawlessly dances in both worlds. A former professional ballerina, Natasha, who is known as the 'Dancing Chef', brings the same diligence and precision to the kitchen as she did to dancing. Many people think that dancing and cooking are worlds apart, but to Natasha, both are performance arts, creative disciplines that demand dedication and hours of painstaking practice.

She challenges herself constantly, and delights in creating new cooking or taste sensations and designing 'First and Last' dishes and retro cocktails. Tash divides her time between Los Angeles, London and New Zealand, teaching cookery, restaurant consulting and writing. She teaches her elegant comfort style of starters, desserts and drinks in the U.S. and abroad, including at Haagen-Dazs International, Leiths Cooking School in London and The Culinary Institute of New Zealand in Kerikeri, and is also currently collaborating with Chef Anne Conness' new restaurant Stausal, serving Nuevo Rancho Cuisine in El Segundo, L.A., which opened in September 2015.

Natasha's first cookbook, Vanilla Table: The Essence of Exquisite Cooking from the World's Best Chefs (Jacqui Small, UK) was published in 2015, with the help of 33 international chefs who each contributed their own dazzling recipe to this landmark cookbook. Spice Health Heroes is her second book and, like the first, is beautifully photographed by Manja Wachsmuth.

Natasha is a member of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR), Les Dames D'Escoffier (LEDI), International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and New Zealand Chefs Association.