Many visitors to the SLG are already big fans of our cafe, South London Louie. We chatted to their new Head Chef, Daniela Natale about her career to date, what she’s been up to recently and what you might expect from their menus.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a chef.
When I left Lithuania seven years ago, I think I’d cooked myself dinner only a handful of times, which seems ridiculous now. I was very fortunate that my mum would always have something ready, no matter what. But this meant when I moved out, I was clueless. Then I fell in love with a guy who taught me how to properly dice an onion.
After getting a job as a prep chef at Louie Louie, my experience and interest in food grew exponentially. This coincided with my budding interest in organic food growing and community gardening. My food is now very seasonally informed and processed oriented. Lots of volunteering, home cooking during lockdown and a couple horticultural City & Guilds diplomas later, South London Louie suddenly needed a daytime chef. I had worked alongside chefs for years at this point and had so many ideas, so I gave it a shot.
Earlier this year, you did a residency at Grizedale Arts’ pub, The Farmers Arms. What did you get up to there?
My residency at Grizedale materialised off the back of a week-long gardening volunteering stint I did at Lawson Park that summer gone. I went up to stay & work with artist Karen Guthrie, learning about her wonderfully unconventional gardening practices, talking about art and eating great food.
At the end of it, I had a conversation with Adam Sutherland, Director of Grizedale Arts. which led to an invitation to stay at The Farmers Arms and engage in a sort of slow food research. I also explored themes of place-making through cooking, working with local resources and recontextualising my own gastronomic heritage. I spent a month living with only a couple of others, the mountains and my own solitude. I walked everyday, read about the Lithuanian sovereignty movements and soviet occupations, baked my first loaves of rye bread on Independence Day, learned loads about nose to tail cooking, made so much cheese and played with sorrow and with joy.
At the end of the residency I hosted a dinner I named Café Lith, in honour of 35 years of Lithuanian independence & showed Jonas Mekas’ film As I Was Moving Along, Occasionally I Saw Glimpses Of Beauty. I’m returning to Grizedale to cater for their Conference on Rural Art in December, which I’m thrilled about.
There are some amazing places to eat in South London – we’re very lucky! Do you have any favourite restaurants or places to bring people for good food in the city?
I love bringing people to Malaysian Deli in Crofton Park. My friend Luka showed me the spot a couple years ago and I still get super excited about it every time! I get pho at Viet Rest in Deptford every single week. There’s a Lithuanian guy from Kaunas who works there, which is super random but kind of funny.
In Camberwell, FM Mangal has my heart.
What can visitors to the gallery expect from South London Louie now? What’s your favourite thing on the menu? What do you have planned for future menus?
South London Louie is like my second home! I want to keep it super special when it comes to food.
I like to pull from my Baltic heritage and bring some of those flavours into the lunch experience. Right now, expect a super relaxed and cozy café in the weekdays with great home made food that my colleague Ferg and I put a lot of love into.
On the weekends come for more of a buzzy brunch, especially if the sun is out. Sit on table 5, hangout for hours with some friends and have three coffees each. Order the Surniky pancakes and remind yourself that even winter has purpose and beauty to offer.
There have been so many supper clubs, with guest chefs taking over the South London Louie kitchen. It may be difficult to pick a favourite, but if you could bring any of their menus back to taste again, what would it be?
We’ve had so many amazing chefs come through our door, but my favourite was hands down the Roman dinner by Will Faris and James Wyse. They cooked food from Ancient Rome; offal, fresh bread, curd cheese, stuffed pigeon… it was the dinner that inspired me to cook with offal for my dinner at The Farmer’s Arms. I still dream about it!
You recently also took your work to Lithuania – can you tell us a little bit about this?
In October 2025, I participated in Ūmėdė, a transdisciplinary arts festival in Vilnius. It was my first time bringing my food to home territory, which was nerve wracking. The meal took on a totally different character in that context, there was of course less novelty, much more shared nostalgia. It was interesting and also showed me that I could benefit from expanding the conceptual side of my dinners even further.
Stay up to date with Daniela’s latest menus and all of South London Louie’s upcoming Supper Clubs by following them on Instagram.