Renu Ballantine – a food industry entrepreneur, consultant, and private chef with a rich background in business and culinary arts – is a poster child for mid-life reinvention.
After 25 years in corporate roles—including at ExxonMobil—when women in STEM were still a rarity, Renu (54) pivoted to follow her true passion: food, inspired by her father’s scientific food innovations and her mother’s home cooking. At 50, she retrained at Leiths School of Food and Wine and gained two culinary qualifications. She subsequently became a food business consultant and private chef (Chef Renu B), catering for bespoke dinners, parties, and events and delivering tailored cooking classes in London and Surrey.
In October last year, she published her debut cookbook, From Boardroom to Bouillabaisse, which, shaped by her engineering background, streamlines complicated cooking techniques and includes recipes inspired by her worldwide travels, family, favourite chefs, and Indian heritage.
Now, Chef Renu B is bringing her passion for food and its power to connect people to empowerHER UK’s 3rd Annual Mother’s Day Retreat. empowerHER UK is a charity that aims to empower, support, and connect all girls and young women who have experienced the loss of a mother. It offers an inclusive space for fun, relaxation, and connection and provides events that remind girls they are not alone in their grief. The empowerHER Mother’s Day Retreat is the charity’s flagship event.
Chef Renu B at empowerHER UK Mother’s Day Retreat – Tasting Session
This year, Renu will be one of the volunteer facilitators leading a special day of activities at the charity’s Mother’s Day Retreat in London on Sunday, 30th March 2025.
She will host a special tasting session, where attendees will explore how to transform and elevate a simple, neutral base like quick-cook couscous, which is often considered bland, into something personal and packed with flavour. Each participant will create their dressing, learning to balance the key flavour elements of fat, sweet, sour, salt and umami.
Everyone will have access to fresh herbs including parsley, thyme, coriander and tarragon, alongside acids like lemon juice, vinegar and citrus zest and fats such as olive oil and avocado oil to enhance flavours. Additional ingredients such as chillies, cooked wild mushrooms, pomegranate seeds, and roasted garlic will allow participants to add sweet or umami depth. There will also be the opportunity to experiment with more unusual spice blends such as za’atar or sumac.
After getting creative in the kitchen, attendees will enjoy a selection of vegetarian dishes for lunch, including two delicious sandwiches, a beetroot and gem lettuce salad, and, of course, the creative couscous dishes made during the tasting session. The experience will highlight how food can be a source of self-expression, connection and community bond echoing the mission of empowerHER.
empowerHER UK Mother’s Day Retreat 2025
Where: Scene & Heard, 128a Chalton St, London, NW1 1RX
When: Sunday, 30th March 2025
Time: 11 AM – 4 PM
For more details on empowerHER UK’s Mother’s Day Retreat and how to enrol, visit: https://www.empowerheruk.org/retreat