Tonic Kitchen

Alex & Nathalie · Amsterdam → Catalonia · 2020–present

We are Alex & Nath ⟞ an economist-turned-product manager and a classically trained chocolatier ⟝ and this is how a burnout, two cats & a move to the Costa Daurada (Spain) became the foundation of Tonic Kitchen.

We met in Amsterdam at the beginning of 2020. Both of us were deep inside high-intensity careers: one navigating the relentless pace of health-tech, the other behind the kitchen doors, creating chocolate showpieces, inventing flavour combinations, pushing the boundaries of what food can be. We worked hard. We gave a great deal of ourselves. And for a long time, we did not notice the cost.

By late 2025, the exhaustion had become impossible to ignore  ⟞ physically, emotionally & mentally ⟝. We made a decision that will be familiar to many millennials in the modern workforce: something had to change, and change radically. Within a few months we had sold our apartment, packed our lives into boxes, left behind our jobs and moved to Spain with our two cats, Finn & Mango. No clear plan. Just the conviction that a different context was necessary.

What followed was a long, ongoing process of healing and rediscovery. We sat in Vipassana retreats in Northern Thailand. We found ourselves on the yoga mat more consistently. We began practising mindfulness at home, not as a concept, but as a daily habit of seeking it all around. We reconnected with nature on the Catalan coast, picked up painting & sketching once more, started learning Spanish, and began seriously exploring our relationship with food: its environmental footprint, its science, its biology, its cultural roots, its artistic impact and ultimately irs power to slow us down and bring us into the present moment.

Cooking had always been something we loved doing together. But here, in a new place with more space and time, we began to dig deeper & connect threads we had not seen before: the art, the mindfulness, the social impact, the food miles, the carbon footprint, the chemistry inside our bodies, the balance between nutrition and quality, the limits of our unique, personal contexts and our budgets. 

Tonic Kitchen was already taking shape.

It is a concept born out of shared love for food, genuine care for the planet, a nerdy curiosity about how everything works, an artistic sensibility that finds beauty in everyday things, and an honest understanding of how difficult it is to carve out quality time for yourself.

We balance & complement each other. Together, we generate the kind of grounded, practical value that makes mindful, plant-conscious cooking a joyful and sustainable habit.

---Written with intent, by TonicKitchen