Laszlo Badet, Seasonal Simone, and Zélikha Dinga talk about their love for food and the leading names in the art and fashion industries that they cater to

Discover the culinary artistry of three remarkable individuals—Laszlo Badet, Simone Jude (Seasonal Simone), and Zélikha Dinga—who have seamlessly blended their love for food with their creative pursuits. From the vibrant culinary scene in Paris to the cultural melting pot of Melbourne, each of these individuals has carved a niche, infusing their culinary creations with a blend of artistic flair and exceptional taste.

Laszlo Badet

Paris-based Laszlo Badet didn’t know she’d work in food. Growing up in a creative household in Switzerland, she and her siblings were encouraged by their artist father to draw and paint. “I always have to do something with my hands. I can’t stop using them to create,” she tells Bazaar. Badet moved to Paris to work as a seamstress and was working as a petite main for Chanel when the COVID pandemic hit (she also works as a model, with brands like Balenciaga and Lemaire). During lockdown, she took up cooking—a hobby she picked up from her Italian grandmother and mother, Elodie—to make use of her artistic hands while the ateliers were closed.

“I set up an association to raise money to cook for the homeless, and in one month I cooked over 800 dishes,” she says. “By the time the lockdown ended, and I returned to sew in the workshop, my mind had changed, my hands had other inspiration and I decided to dedicate myself to cooking.”

Now, she works as a cook and food stylist with brands like the jeweller Aurelie Bidermann and the cult sneaker brand Veja. For Veja, she recently created a buffet of traditional French cuisine, with terrines, fresh-baked bread, a selection of cheeses and crudités. “There wasn’t a crumb left!” Badet’s well-trained aesthetic eye, honed by artists like Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, touches every part of the culinary process, from the food itself to the scope of the staging. “It’s a creative culinary project,” she explains. “I can help a brand to find the right dishes. I’ll bake the bread myself, I’ll help create the right floral arrangement, and will even find the perfect venue. I essentially take what I do at home when I’m hosting friends and family, and stage it on a larger scale.”

Badet says her work, which straddles the line between cooking and art, taps into an old, long-forgotten tradition. “Years ago, the haute bourgeoisie were creating grand buffets with endless pièces montées, meticulous decorations on the dishes and food from all over the world. This art has been lost over time, but today I feel it’s a real honour that we’re giving this care back to the dishes.” It’s a tradition that feels inextricably linked to Paris. “Where I grew up, there wasn’t even a bakery or a café. Imagine when I arrived in Paris, the culinary wealth I discovered. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live without it.”

Simone Jude 

Simone Jude, better known to her Instagram followers as Seasonal Simone, says her love for food started at home. “I grew up in a household where family meals were a huge deal,” the Melbourne-born chef says. While stopping and starting her university studies, which included engineering and a degree in art history, Jude began working part-time in kitchens “and absolutely fell in love with it”. But it wasn’t until Melbourne’s COVID lockdowns that she found a cult following online, selling picnic sets that included fresh scones with strawberries and cream or, a particular fan favourite, chicken and pork terrine with pistachio crumb.

Jude’s proclivity for delicious, French-inspired menus, and her sharp visual eye, soon caught the attention of fashion brands like Camilla and Marc, who commissioned her to create food instillations for their events. “I’m obsessed with beauty and with making food look beautiful, because it is inherently beautiful,” she explains.

At a recent Camilla and Marc event, she created a tower of profiteroles, pouring the silky dark chocolate by hand. It was served with duck confit, “a dish that can actually look quite ugly, but I enjoy figuring out a way to present it that is feminine, elegant and playful—that's what I’m inherently drawn towards.”

Having recently taken a long, culinary-inspired trip around Europe, Jude is now back in Melbourne, where she’ll be working as the pastry chef at the soon-to-launch Bistra in Carlton. She’s also looking at bringing back her famous picnics, while remaining an in-demand food stylist and content creator.

“I think food is slowly becoming more recognised as an art form, almost on par with design and architecture. And it’s an adaptive art form. My food has been placed in an art gallery, in private dining rooms, in fashion showrooms, at skincare launches.

“For a long time, food has been associated largely with sustenance, but it can also be pleasure, and I think people are waking up to that."

Zélikha Dinga

When Zélikha Dinga set up her own cooking agency three years ago, she looked to one of her favourite filmmakers, Nanni Moretti, to help choose the name. His 1993 film Caro Diario translates to “Dear Diary”. “It’s funny, because it has nothing to do with food, but I found the name quite poetic. It’s this idea that you open a page, and you don’t know what’s going to be written next,” says Dinga. Plus, Moretti has an ongoing gag of referencing Sachertorte, an Austrian chocolate cake that he has a decades-long obsession with, in his films. “The way he speaks about it, he has the same kind of obsession with food as me, especially dessert.”

Dinga was born and raised in Paris and grew up convinced she’d take over the family bookshop. But food came calling, and she spent years as a chef working in restaurants around Paris before branching out on her own. “I was tired,” she admits. “I wanted to see if I could do something else. Caro Diario started very simple. I was selling cakes and cookies. Soon, I began to get some commissions, first from friends and then from small brands with small budgets, and I’d push the boundaries and try to create new things. The first real event we produced took place two years ago, and we haven’t looked back since.”

Dinga has gone onto work with the biggest brands in fashion like Prada, Gucci and Paco Rabanne, creating ambitious, large-scale food projects that more closely resemble sculpture than they do traditional catering. Last September, for an after-party celebrating Sarah Burton’s final collection at Alexander McQueen, Dinga and her team created a menu inspired by the original art pieces by the late Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, whose woven sculptures dotted Burton’s runway. “That was an example of the beautiful dialogue that can happen between us and our clients,” says Dinga. “Food brings joy to people, and it’s beautiful to be able to create these moments that are visually pleasing but also inspire beautiful moments where people can connect over good food.”

And while Caro Diario’s work is remarkably aesthetic—inspired by everything from Dinga’s love of Italian Renaissance painting to a recent trip to Japan, it’s a passion for quality produce that drives everything she does. “It’s my responsibility to make sure that, just for the sake of having something red in December, I’m not going to buy strawberries that come from Chile with a negative carbon impact. For me, the excitement comes from thinking about solutions to creating a project within certain limits that come with using the best seasonal produce. It’s amazing.”

This piece originally appeared in the issue January 2024 issue of Harper's Bazaar Australia.