Women’s Month: Andrea Leeson
Over the years, we have had the honour of working with some remarkable women, both in-the-field, as well as in more unconventional environmental roles. All of these #WomenInConservation have stepped up to support our conservation work by lending their incredible talents to our cause. Andrea Leeson, is one of these women. Not only is she a talented botanical artist, but uniquely you get to eat her works of art. Which are undeniably DELICIOUS!
For many years now Andrea has spoilt the TMF team with biscuits and treats and last year she made our 21st birthday cake, which was an absolute showstopper.
A talented chef, with a jewellery design background, Andrea was exposed to botanical illustration from an early age, as her mom, Vicki Thomas, is a world renown botanical artist. Andrea’s passion and skills in art, food & design have led her on a very unique career path – illustrating watercolour style designs onto cakes and biscuits. This has been an exciting and rewarding journey for Andrea, as this form of art is very uncommon in South Africa.
Andrea’s small bakery, The Red Kitchen, keeps growing from strength-to-strength and in 2019 she expanded her range to include gluten free & vegan biscuits. She also works with companies on recipe development and product testing, as well as teaching and providing creative workshops to schools and corporates.
Andrea’s incredible food art has not gone unnoticed and she has been featured on American TV, in an award-winning ad at the Cannes festival, as well as being featured in South African print media and numerous blogs.
Working with Andrea has been a unique and inspiring experience and she has certainly shown us how diverse and creative fynbos conservation support can be. We can’t wait to see Andrea’s next fynbos inspired creation.
Follow Andrea on social media for some fynbos inspiration and be sure to visit her website: www.theredkitchen.co.za.
FB: The Red Kitchen
Insta: @andreaskitchen
Twitter: @RedKitchen1
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