The Vegan Chef “Plantifying” Provençal Cuisine for a Longer, Happier Life
This conversation is part of Luberon Profiles, a Q&A series featuring local entrepreneus and their stories.
You know that one friend who makes you wonder if you’ve been playing it too safe? The one who dances at music festivals, overlands from Asia to Europe, and buys a crumbling house in Provence armed with nothing but grit and an air mattress? She also makes a mean jar of pickles because, of course she does.
That’s Margo de Groot Coenen.
Based in Viens, she runs Picnic en Provence—a plant-based company that offers private cheffing, catering, cooking classes, and stylish picnics.
The Dutch-born chef is on a mission to help Provence earn its place among the world’s Blue Zones—places where people live exceptionally long, happy lives because they move more, stress less, love more, and eat well.
In the Luberon, it already feels like that anyway: the slow pace, nature walks, sense of community, and good food. And yes, that includes a glass of red wine, which absolutely counts as healthy in my book. (You can fight me on that later.)
Margo is reviving plant-based Provençal cuisine in a modern, vegan Blue Zones way.
And in a region famous for lamb, goat cheese, and lavender honey, that’s a daring move. But if you’ve ever wandered through our markets, you know we’re spoiled with gorgeous fruits and vegetables—proof that the land itself already leans plant-forward.
So when a chef is this passionate, this curious, and this bold, we should pay attention. Margo is cooking with purpose and inviting the rest of us to the table. Let’s go!
Tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you and what brought you to the Luberon?
Our first ever holiday together was to the Festival d’Avignon in 1992. We loved it! We stood on the same campsite as many of the street artists (it was a much more accessible festival back then).
Then, 20-odd years ago, we trotted back into the Luberon. After over two years of living in New Zealand and Australia, we travelled back to Europe overland through Asia. Dressed in shalwar kameez and with all we owned stashed in our backpacks, we again installed ourselves on the same Avignon campsite as in ’92.
We immediately felt our love reignited—for the nature, the colours, the lifestyle, the countryside, and for Avignon. We said: This is where we need to live.
With our pockets full of memories but hardly a penny left, we first made our way back to the Lowlands to financially get back on our feet. Life happened. We travelled a lot but always found our way back to the Luberon.
Around 15 years ago, we figured that if we wanted to live this dream, we had to start taking it seriously and start looking for a house. With a miniature budget and lots of passion and drive, we started searching and eventually found a doer-upper in Vaugines—a handyman’s dream, as they call it in New Zealand.
We bought it in January 2019, thinking we’d do it up over the holidays. A plan that never would’ve worked, but it sounded good enough to sell it to ourselves. Fast forward one year, COVID hit the world and we had to work from home. When the borders opened, we left our comfortable design loft in The Hague (which we’d also built ourselves) and sped off to our building pit in Vaugines.
We put down an air mattress and my mum and dad’s old camping gas stove, and set up for work from camping chairs. We never went back to the Lowlands. We just loved it too much here in the Luberon.
We sold our house in The Netherlands and after five years of building, we had to admit that our Vaugines gem no longer met our needs now that we were living here full time. So we sold it and moved to Viens, where we found our dream home with enough space for my professional kitchen.
We count our blessings every day that we live in such a bountiful area: the light, the different seasons, the colours, the beautiful produce. We still find the magic that we found so many years ago, and now we get to live amidst it every day!
Now, we’d love to know about your business. What’s the backstory?
When my husband broke his knee in a motorbike accident many years ago, he couldn’t stand up for nearly three months. When the worst pain wore off, I felt we needed labour therapy and somehow I came up with making piccalilli.
It’s a lot of cutting that he could do sitting down and I could cook standing up. So off we went, producing lots of horrible, much-too-acidic yellow mush. But we were having a ball doing it, and it inspired us to keep developing.
With every pan, we evolved and ended up developing our own, gaining lots of produce knowledge along the way. R&D was on the couch: every ingredient, every question that came up got researched as I ran my other company.
The whole piccalilli and pickle business got out of hand in a lovely way, and we ended up on Dutch national television with our pickles. That’s how I discovered a true love for cooking—the research and innovation part of it, as well as achieving consistency.
When we lived through a few major life events, I started to take stock of my life and business and decided I wanted to change lanes. I knew I loved cooking and from my former career in conferencing, I also knew that nothing ever happens without a good meal. So I went searching for a good education but online. We had moved so much that I didn’t want to move again. Plus, I still had my old business to run.
I found Rouxbe online and loved their reviews and customer service. So off I went in on the deep end with the plant-based pro training program. I’m now a proud triple graduate of their training programs, which I found to equal the rigour, discipline, information depth, and learning curve of my two master’s degree.
As I trained and lived in the beauty of the Luberon, and with an innate love for picnic-ing, the idea occurred to me to create a mobile, al fresco stylish food experience.
Picnic en Provence was born: plant-based food adventures and cooking in Provence. It’s a giant, wonderful, warm adventure and a massive learning curve that enables me to get people to truly meet over good food.
A brainstorm over a bottle of good wine and a mezze-like Provençal dinner later, Picnic en Provence was born: plant-based food adventures and cooking in Provence.
And yes, I now have an ever-growing cellar of Terre de Fer* crockery, silver and silver-plated cutlery, vintage glasses, beautiful tablecloths, and pillows. I love the combination of my innovative plant-based food inspired by the traditional Provençal cuisine and the glorious French table dressing tradition.
A bonus that I didn’t see coming but love is that my business gives me the best excuse to squirrel on vide greniers* for the beautiful old serving platters and glasses. The other bonus is that I get to discover exciting, new picnic spots where I can make people happy with a good picnic. And through my workshops, I get to meet people from so many different walks of life.
It’s a giant, wonderful, warm adventure and a massive learning curve that enables me to get people to truly meet over good food.
**Editor’s Notes**
- If you aren’t familiar with terre de fer, it’s a durable French ceramic, similar to English ironstone. Popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it shows up on tableware and decorative objects with blue or sepia florals, toile scenes, or embossed white edges. You can still find it in old French kitchens and flea markets.
- A vide grenier—literally “empty the attic”—is a village-wide yard sale in France. On the other hand, brocantes are more like flea markets, often run by professional antique dealers. Check this site for schedules of secondhand markets in the Luberon (Vaucluse) and the rest of France.
Were you in this line of work before? If not, what did you do prior?
I worked for 20+ years with my own business as a manager for projects and clients championing access to information and education. I specialised in organising and curating high-level, high-profile conferences and facilitating complex conversations, and I did it passionately.
Imagine you’re in an elevator. You’ve got 30 seconds. How do you describe your business to a stranger?
I am a professionally trained plant-based cook in Provence who organises, cooks, and delivers stylish picnics in beautiful places, at people’s homes and who teaches others to create great food. Bon appétit!
What part of your business makes you happy?
I love the local produce, the food, meeting people, the rhythm. The discipline and focus of cooking, including cleaning up. The learning at every turn and being surrounded by an engaged international and local community. The reimagining of traditional Provençal cuisine in a healthy and sumptuous direction. I truly love that.
How about what worries or challenges you?
One is to create my signature healthy and sumptuous Provençal cuisine and to get people on board with that. To get Provence on the list of Blue Zones in the world, that is, areas where people live significantly longer and healthier lives (e.g. Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, and recently, Singapore).
In these zones, people basically move more, stress less, love more, and eat well. Now, the first three ingredients are abundantly available in Provence and the ‘eat well’ is what I focus on.
The other challenge is, for the summer of 2026, I’m creating chefs picnics in our garden overlooking the Luberon. That’s a lot of concept development and work, though it’s shaping up well!
Do you remember your very first customer? How did that feel?
I remember every first client: from the first workshop I ever gave in a home, to my first catering and private cheffing gig, to my massive picnic for nearly 40 people.
With everyone who knocks on my door, I feel so honoured, deeply happy, and immeasurably proud when people grant me their trust to lighten up a moment in their lives with great food and a stylish picnic setting. It’s a very deep sense of profound satisfaction.
Have you ever had a strange or unexpected request from a client?
It is quite common for catering and private cheffing to receive requests that one or more people of the group do not eat fish, pork, or that someone is lactose intolerant.
I started off explaining that I’m an integrated vegan and that there are no animal products in my kitchen nor in my life but now I simply respond: “Thank you, no problem!” And it makes me very happy and proud that so far everybody has loved my food!
When you started out, what did you imagine running a business in Provence would be like…and how did the reality compare?
I never really thought that far ahead: I saw and felt the vision (very visceral actually, like I could touch the image), and I just got to work. In my experience, making any business a success is knowing your craft, having your dream, and just working hard without too much fear of what could happen.
It’s all about hard work, full engagement, being competent, seizing (and creating) opportunities, learning with every step—and keeping it moving. And I am doing that in a beautiful light, cooking with fabulous local products, inspired by a rich culinary tradition surrounded by wonderful nature. There truly are worse contexts to stumble ahead in and find your way!
Outside of work, what’s ONE thing you’re most proud of and why?
I am very proud of the person I’ve become and the people my and my husband have become.
What’s one unconventional or surprising or brave choice you’ve made that shaped where you are today?
Leaving all behind, giving up our house and permanent employment contracts back in 1999 to live our dream of living and working in New Zealand and travelling through Asia overland.
To stand up for our own dreams, to follow our hearts, to simply believe in our capabilities, and to embrace all that came our way. That has become a guiding principle and has very much shaped us now living here.
What’s something you wished you knew about living in the Luberon before coming here?
Nothing honestly. As we travelled, I learned that it pays off to be aware of your own values and to not start by projecting or judging based on your values. Just open up and roll with it.
What do you love most about living in the Luberon? And what’s one thing you wish you could change?
The people, the light, the fantastic produce, the wild nature. I am one meal at a time trying to create a more compassionate way of cooking, eating, and living.
If you could take your favorite person to just ONE village/site/attraction in the Luberon, where would it be and why?
To our garden that overlooks the Alps and the Luberon. It showcases the quiet, intense, immersive beauty of the Luberon–best admired with good food and a glass of kefir or wine. To me, it is paradise.
What’s your favorite restaurant/cafe in the Luberon? What do you love to eat, drink, or do there?
La Flambée, the pizzeria in Bonnieux. It’s a family-run business that has been around forever and that is always welcoming. They make the Harlequin pizza vegan for me. They serve great local wine, and I especially love it in winter when it’s intimate and small and we chat with the owners. It’s uncomplicated, simply good, and such wonderful people.
In larger Provence, as a vegan, I love to go to Mariposas in Marseille and Paper Plane in Nice. Both have great food and lovely staff.
Taste Provence with a Blue Zones twist. Book a plant-based picnic, cooking class, or private meal with Margo. See her year-round offerings.
