I can hardly believe it, but the dream I’ve been busy building since for ever and working on tirelessly with the best team in the world for the last five months, has just been realised.

I have a cafe! With my own fricken name on it!!!

It’s been so full on that I don’t remember the last time I sat down or even slept for more than 5 hours, but today… today is different.

I finally got a chance to sit on our comfy cafe banquettes, looked around at all the beautiful natural walls full of living plants, observed the hardworking team happily chatting away and then overheard a customer on the phone:

‘I found the perfect new spot for us! Meet me in Chelsea, at Tanya’s.’Then suddenly, it sunk in.
This is the real deal.
These are real customers.
These are real people who really love raw food. My raw food!
These are real chefs who can make my recipes to my standards and perfect them to theirs.
These are real mixologists, who are as passionate about incredible cocktails as I am about quality, superfoods and life.
This is my new family. And they love coming to work and promoting the healthiest lifestyle ever.
This is my new home, my new office, my new happy place.

One day I will figure out how to put so much gratitude, joy and emotions into words, but for now I am happy sitting here breathing in what love created. 

It was built for you, so I invite you to do the same. If you are anywhere near London, stop by and say hello. We are open 7 days a week 7am-11pm (apart from Sunday and Monday when we close at 4pm). 

Our menu offers a variety of breakfast items, including rawtella un-toast and dehydrated fruit crepe, pour over coffee, cold-pressed juices, smoothies and liver flush shooters. Our lunch menu has an even bigger selection and includes multi-layered lasagne, detox salad, soft shell tacos with marinated oyster mushroom meat, pad thai and organic natural wine. Then come four- you can enjoy a shared platter of nachos or cheesecakes and chocolates, as well as our superfood cocktails made only with the top quality, vegan and organic spirits mixed with cold-pressed juices and superfoods.

Here’s more: www.TanyasCafe.com

I can’t wait to see you! Now we have a meeting spot 

With Love,

x Tanya

 

Have you seen my exciting announcement numero uno yesterday? Here it is again if you missed it>>

But I did promise you that something else is coming your way. Something bigger, better, more terrifying and thrilling, than anything I’ve ever planned, launched or lived before.

And it’s happening this year! This August! In London!

Watch out UK- my very own raw food cafe and cocktail bar is opening in just over six weeks from today.

There. I’ve said it. It feels amazing and I’m pretty certain I just levitated.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE CAFE:

Located at a prestigious London address, Tanya’s is a beautiful raw food restaurant and superfood cocktail bar in the heart of Chelsea. This cutting edge, living cuisine is as energising and impressive, as it is elegant. The menu is designed to reflect your busy schedule and provide loving nourishment at all times of the day. You’ll be able to get your morning green juice or a coffee with hazelnut milk, a satisfyingly delicious plant-based burger and decadent raw chocolate cake for lunch, then come evening you could share a vibrant cashew cheese platter and superfood packed cocktails, that are made with only top quality, vegan and ethically sourced alcohol. Tanya’s is about blending innovative technique with seasonal produce and offering delicious culinary art in a classy natural environment.Coming to myhotel Chelsea, August 2014.

TAKE A PEEK AT THE ARCHITECT’S DRAWINGS:

CONSTRUCTION HAS BEGUN! HOARDING BOARD SNIPPET:

BE THE FIRST TO HEAR THE BEST DETAILS:

FOLLOW ALONG FOR UPDATES & PROGRESS BEFORE WE OPEN:

T | twitter.com/TanyasCafe

F | facebook.com/TanyasSuperfoods

In| instagram.com/TanyasChelsea

W| Coming soon

CHEF & MANAGER ROLES ARE OPEN & AVAILABLE NOW:

HEAD CHEF & ASSISTANT CHEF

Have you got the talent, passion for healthy plant-based food, an artistic flair and experience in a fast paced commercial environment?

We are looking for exceptional chefs to play a big part in the success of Tanya’s Raw Food Restaurant at myhotel, Chelsea. Working closely with the Restaurant Manager to ensure that revenue, profit and performance targets are consistently achieved, you’ll also see that we meet all hygiene, health and safety requirements.

It goes without saying that you’ve already made your mark in a highly commercial restaurant business if applying for a Head Chef position and would have at least one year experience if applying for an Assistant Chef position. A drive to give our members the very best dining experience and a degree of knowledge on the raw food cuisine, would both be essential.

Above all, you set and expect the highest standards, have a can-do attitude, are great at motivating others, able to consistently work to time constraints, start at 6AM and have a real desire to promote healthy eating and positivity in a high-energy environment.

The hours are a dream come true for many chefs, as you’ll be done by 4PM, the package will include great training and development, 28 days holiday pa, meals on shift, discounts and a competitive basic salary of circa £30K-£38K for a Head Chef and £20K-£28K for Assistant.

 

ASSISTANT MANAGER

Are you an energetic people person with a passion for healthy plant-based food and experience in a fast paced commercial environment?

We are looking for a passionate Assistant Cafe Manager to play a big part in the success of Tanya’s Raw Food Restaurant at myhotel, Chelsea. Working closely with Tanya Maher to ensure that revenue, profit and performance targets are consistently achieved, you’ll also confidently deliver exceptional five-star service to guests.

It goes without saying that you’ve had some managerial experience in a commercial café, thrive in a fast-paced environment and have the service, raw food and drink knowledge to lead a  restaurant.

Above all, you have a real pride and passion for your work within the healthy eating industry, you set and expect the highest standards, have a can-do attitude, exceptional customer service skills and ability to deliver a warm and charming management style, are great at motivating others, willing for 6AM starts and have a real desire to promote superfood eating and positivity in a high-energy environment.

The hours would be flexible, the package will include great training and development, 28 days holiday pa, meals on shift, discounts and a competitive basic salary of circa £20K.

 

APPLY NOW:

Please send your CV and cover letter to hello@tanyasliving.com and include this subject line: Tanya’s – Job Application for (enter position). You will be contacted if your skills and experience fulfils the criteria of the role and of the position is still available. Otherwise, your details will be kept in our confidential files should a suitable vacancy arise. We appreciate that not all candidates wish their details to be held on a database and would ask that you notify us if this is the case.

Wowee we finally did it!

I say ‘we’, because you guys were the driving force behind every little decision to do with the site, the new free guide, the navigation experience, what I post about and even what I name stuff.

I’m honestly so excited about such a beautiful resource available to you and am over joyed that this new look belongs to Better Raw.

 

I don’t even know where to begin with what has changed about the website (because we changed the lot), so here are my top 5 faves:

1. THE NEW FREE GIFT!

‘One Day Raw- A beginner’s guide to living foods‘ includes everything I ever wanted to know when I first got started with raw foods, a 24 hour menu plan for both blender and juicer users, a heap of tips to keep you going and a menu planner that I use myself.

2. THE NEW LOGO.

I wanted a logo which reflected everything I love about living a healthy lifestyle and eating in a clean way – fresh, fun, vibrant, welcoming, free spirited, loving and wholesome. My friend and an epic graphic designer, Nikki Alice, simply nailed it! The logo is written in free hand to reflect the free spirited attitude to life, it is inside a flower-like circle to reflect the wholesomeness and a natural touch to eating living foods and the last letter flows into an infinity sign to reflect our consciousness and spiritual awakening possibilities when we transition to a more natural way of eating and thinking.

3. THE REVOLVING BANNER.

Now all the top things you search my website for are easier (and prettier) to get to.

4. THE NEW SHOP.

Even though all those kitchen must-haves, which I have been raving about and recommending, are still my favourites- I have categorised them for you (based on your level of experience with raw food) to better find what you are looking for. Here are the categories:
Tanya’s products
Where Tanya shops
Newbie must-haves
Advanced level must-haves
Pro Chef must-haves
Tanya’s favourite extras
Travel essentials
Other great reads, inspirational people and places to eat

5. EASIER-TO-GET-TO POSTS.

The home page now includes a summary of all posts, so you can scroll your way through the latest articles, recipes and updates super fast. Also on the left hand side, you’ll see a list of all those links which you search BetterRaw.com for most of all. And if you still can’t find something, just enter a keyword of a recipe name or an ingredient into the search box and we’ll scan over 200 free recipes currently available to you to find the one you are after.

 

WANNA SEE HOW BETTERRAW.COM HAS EVOLVED OVER FOUR BEAUTIFUL YEARS?

I joined Blogger on April 16th 2010 and nearly peed myself posting for the very first time, because I was so nervous. I originally started the blog as an addition to my company Corporate Creme, which was a corporate wellness program and the Better Raw logo was in the same font as CC:

Then the following year in 2011, as my little blog began to get more traction and enjoy many more visitors than just Elliot and my parents, I devoted more time to prettying it up. I got a new logo (which remained the same for three years and I loved, as it reminded me of grass) and a new template (even though it was a Blogger standard and I soon discovered hundreds more people using the same one in my industry): When I got good at using Blogger, taught myself some coding, discovered all the widgets available for my use and got some professional photography, I hired a designer to make me a beautiful website: Then at the end of 2013, when my business has far outgrown all the possibilities a Blogger blog could offer, it was time to move to the great big unknown and equally exciting world of Wordpress. It was only supposed to be a temporary template, while my current new site got built: And finally... so fresh and so clean, clean! I'm ecstatic to reveal the brand new Better Raw look to you:

I’ve been super lucky to work with the very best team on this project, so I absolutely must tell you about them:

PHOTOGRAPHY

Apart from the foodie shots that you see on all the revolving banners and all page banners (which were taken by me), all other images are either by Samjhana Moon or Tristan Glinski. Tristan is a talented wedding photographer and attended one of our raw food and yoga retreats, where he captured the magic in action. Samjhana is a dear friend and goddess portraiture wizard, whose work we appreciate so much, that we invited her to be the official photographer of my and Elliot’s wedding in New Zealand. I highly recommend these two conscious and kind beings to do any of your photography.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

I’m seriously lucky to be able to work not only with talented people, but also amazing friends. Nikki Alice and I have been buddies ever since uni, because her fiancé and I studied together and worked as commercial property agents at Jones Lang Lasalle. We’ve shared some of our best London memories with them, including our engagement party, and some of our best NZ memories, including our wedding! Working with Nikki on this website (and my next venture, which is in the following announcement!) has been the greatest joy and privilege. She is responsible for the logo, the branding, the website aesthetics, all the social network banners and the whole design of One Day Raw eBook. I wouldn’t go updating anything now without Nikki’s input and her vision.

WEB DEVELOPMENT

My word, I do not envy the tremendous work which website developers do, however I do so admire the amount of patience and devotion they put into their work. The superwoman mama, blogger and developer, Faye Kent, was responsible for moving my whole site from Blogger to WordPress and the entire configurations and coding of BetterRaw.com’s new design. The incredible and speedy, Ansley Fones, whom I met through IIN, was responsible for configuring the entire Shop and Events page on the site. That’s a whole lot of code and tenacity. These ladies are my number-one-go-to’s for anything to do with site configuration, plugin and widget advice.

 

So what do YOU think of the new site? You did help me design it after all 

Leave a comment below, I’d so love to hear from you and no doubt the team involved would too! They worked so hard.

It feels like a whole lifetime has passed since I last wrote to you, but the irony of it is that there has been a passing of someone in my life.

The death of my young, sweet, brave and beautiful friend, Polly Noble, has affected me in more ways that I could've ever imagined...

From connecting with her in my meditation the day after and her guiding me to write this post, to resetting her passwords for the many groups and memberships, which we were both part of, to preparing raw foods in her own kitchen, with her own Superfoods, using her own recipes... for her own funeral, I spent the past two weeks in a blurry cloud of deep sadness and in total awe of her family's strength.
And what's the book, that's helping me through this weird and emotionally draining time?

It just so happens to be Polly's very own book 'The Cancer Journey- Positive steps to help yourself heal'. I really recommend it to anyone not only with a cancer diagnosis, but to their friends and relatives also- it's gentle, comforting, hopeful and full of interesting tips, healing techniques and delicious recipes.

She also left a little bit of a debt behind, so by purchasing this book, you'll be helping not only yourself, but also Polly's family to recover.

Here's the link again for the book, but the same goes for all of her shop items from juicers to crystals to the super awesome glass straws!

The day I learned about Polly's passing was the day I was gearing up to release my brand new website and show off what's been going on behind the scenes over the past couple of months. This didn't happen for obvious reasons, as all of my priorities shifted. I also no longer had the energy, nor the enthusiasm or any interest for that matter. And that's just not the right attitude for something which required as much love and energy as it did to produce. So I stepped away. Trusting that everything happens in its divine time, I will start making updates to my website slowly (rather than all at once) and the first stage is to share the gorgeous new eBook...  
'One Day Raw- A beginner's guide to living foods' is designed by my super clever friend, Nikki Alice and written for you, by me, in a way I wished was available to me, when I first got started with raw foods. 

I did my best to write it in the most concise fashion, because a beginner's guide should be far from overwhelming.

Depending on the equipment you have handy, I've included 2 x menu plans, one for a blender and the other for a juicer, a shopping list for each, plus some of my favourite snack ideas.

I've also included a menu planning guide, eight reasons why I choose raw food, what to do after your mini cleanse and in the last paragraph of 'About Tanya' page, I've revealed something coming to London, that no one even knows of ... except you now! 

I hope you find it valuable x

If you are already a subscriber to our emails, please check your inbox- this gift is there and waiting for you.

If you are new here, welcome and please subscribe via this link to receive your free copy :)

DEAR FELLOW STUDENT OF LIFE,

 

Last year you would’ve heard me rave about my studies with IIN…

It’s a widely known fact that The Institute For Integrative Nutrition is the largest nutrition school in the world. They graduate more people each year, than all nutrition schools in USA combined! The qualification is recognised worldwide, but many I know didn’t even do it for a certificate, they simply studied for their own health. It is no secret that the very best holistic doctors, health coaches, authors, scientists and nutritionists lecture at this prestigious institute.

I raved on and on about the most life changing, community fuelled, love packed, educational and inspirational year of my career, and now I’m excited to announce that as their graduate and proud ambassador- I’m able to pass amazing savings onto YOU!

This is a one-off Tax Day Special and the best discount I’ve seen for the course thus far. 

If you played your cards right, you might just find yourself with a little extra cash in your pocket after filing your taxes this year. And at IIN you can get upto DOUBLE your tax refund on tuition this year! Soooo if you pay in full between 9AM-5:30PM (New York time) or 2PM- 10:30PM (UK time), you will get upto US$2000 off The Health Coach Training Program!

That’s pretty insane, considering that even at full price, I whole-heartedly believe that the program is worth every penny.

Interested? Here’s what you can do next:

1. Read my answers to the FAQs about the course, below…
2. Call (877) 733-1520 or email  coachblair@integrativenutrition.com for all the details. Tell Blair that Tanya Alekseeva told you about the Tax Day Special in order to qualify for up to $2000 off.

FAQs ON MY IIN STUDIES

What would you say you gained by doing the course that you didn’t have (or know) before? 

When we first learn about raw foods and how life-changing this diet is, it’s very easy to get stuck on one point of view, because we are just so passionate to share our own experience with it. The thing is- there are hundreds of other dietary theories out there, because everyone is unique with highly individualised nutritional requirements.

"Personal differences in anatomy, metabolism, body composition and cell structure all influence your overall health and the foods that make you feel your best. That’s why no single way of eating works for everyone. The food that is perfect for your unique body, age, and lifestyle may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic."

IIN taught me all about bio-individuality, introduced me to over 100 dietary theories and their pros and cons, which didn’t only make me more effective in my coaching practice, but got me learning so much about myself and what is optimum for my own body, immune system, energy levels and creativity potential.  

 

Is it easy to manage your time with lessons/studying?

I can’t say that I wasn’t nervous to begin, because the year I chose for my IIN studies was also the year of other major life commitments, like planning my wedding, running a 28 day Acid-Alkaline Breakthrough e-program, organising my first destination retreat in Ecuador, releasing another eBook, marketing my workshops and launching the pH Booster- alkalising superfood powder. But as soon as I got started with IIN, I realised how much it helped me get disciplined and stay motivated. I looked forward to the release of every new weekly module and listened to the videos and podcasts while preparing dinner, going for a walk and even flying, since I could always download any lecture for offline use.  Listening to recordings only required 2-5 hours per week too, so even if I had a huge week coaching, I could always catch up quickly enough. The best piece of advice I could give is to print out course materials at the start of each new week, as many of my classmates didn’t realise that we get handed out all the slides and info presented by all speakers and as a result- spent far too long taking notes.  

 

Has your coaching business expanded since the course?

I noticed that my coaching enquiries went up as soon as I began the studies. Then all throughout the course I was pleasantly surprised at how many people knew that IIN was the world’s largest nutrition school, as soon as I mentioned it. By the time I graduated, I had to take down the entire ‘Coaching’ page on my site, because I could no longer take on any additional clients. The most interesting turn of events though was that while I was learning about my own health and diet and how to listen more carefully to the needs of my clients, I discovered my true calling. It was with the help of IIN’s invaluable information, that I am confidently transitioning to the next stage of my career and launching the most exciting new project London has seen when it comes to raw food! [All will be revealed soooooon!]