Six years ago, the Brazilian chef traded in her life as an investment banker in New York City to pursue her interest in learning about the impact lifestyle has on wellbeing through the study of plant-based cooking.

She has not looked back. Since moving to Australia with her husband Joseph in 2016 the couple have raised two children and launched community-minded projects that aim to help those with chronic illness, and other health issues, to learn how nutritious food can be used to improve their lives.

Promoting food as medicine is at the core of her values as a plant-based chef at Food Farmacy.

The not-for-profit cafe was launched last week in Cardiff and offers an extensive menu of freshly-prepared organic whole food and drinks.

"My goal is to really focus on educating people on how to use lifestyle as medicine," Ito Skaf tells Weekender.

"A major component of lifestyle is what we eat because we eat every day and we eat more than once a day, so we really want to make whole foods accessible to everyone because whatever we eat, whatever we drink, it will impact our wellbeing in general."

Located on the ground floor of the Atune Health Centres complex, Food Farmacy's entire menu is free from meat, dairy, eggs, highly-processed or refined ingredients and sugars, but it's not short on flavour.

Toasties (including roasted pumpkin with semi-dried tomatoes, nut-based feta, caramelised onion and pesto), curries and soups are available, alongside the wellness bowl bar menu.

The range of signature bowls (or make your own) include savoury (try the Brazilian Bowl with smoked saucy black beans, brown rice, sauteed kale, tomato salsa, tapioca crumble and grilled banana) and sweet options such as the pancake bowl with French-style buckwheat and rice flour pancakes, seasonal fruits, vanilla cashew pear cream and date syrup.

All are listed with an explanation of their health benefits.

The wellness bowl bar operates during lunch service, and take-home meals can also be ordered ahead over the phone and picked up as a convenient and healthy dinner option. The cafe's dine-in area will be completed within a month.

The parfait menu proves you can eat plant-based and enjoy sweets, with five options including organic dark chocolate mousse, cupuacu cream and jam coulis, Brazil nut crumble and strawberries. The fluffy mousse has an unlikely ingredient.

"It is a chocolate mousse that is actually made with tofu, so it's a big protein booster and it is also good for women because it helps to balance the amount of estrogen that we need," Ito Skaf says.

"There is also cupuacu which is an Amazon fruit that is from the same family as the acai berry and is high in antioxidants, so we have put a lot of thought into our menu and we are offering things that are pretty unique."

Smoothies are on the menu as well as coffee and tea but with one key difference: no caffeine. Food Farmacy uses beans from NSW roasters Bastion Lane and Little Roasters who supply the cafe with chemical-free decaffeinated coffee that is full-bodied and smooth, but without the buzz that can lead to anxiety and sleep issues.

"We spent a huge amount of money on our coffee machine because we wanted people to have the same exact experience they have at a cafe, but show them that having a quality decaf and quality teas that don't have caffeine can be just as good," she says.

Profits from Food Farmacy are put back into community programs that aim to help people improve their health through better eating habits.

"Cooking is my hobby and I wanted to translate that passion into seeing people transforming their lives through food," she says. "The profits that we make here go back into educating people about lifestyle as medicine. We partner with a charity called Seeds Newcastle which is a heart and mental health promotion charity.

"People can go to the Seeds website and choose a program they want to participate in and these programs are subsidised by the profits of Food Farmacy."