My appreciation, fascination and love for food originated in the vegetable garden of my childhood. During high school I became food conscious. I wanted to know what foods were good for me and started to pay attention to the ingredients in the things we eat. I have long been passionate about and supportive of the Slow Food and Locavore movements. I believe that through sustainable agriculture and with whole ingredients one should be able to create nutritional dishes, without sacrificing flavor, appearance or elegance.

I enrolled at The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts because of its focus on the nutritional aspects of food and cooking. Above and beyond learning classic culinary technique, their curriculum taught me to utilize food as medicine. We are capable of healing our bodies through the foods we eat.

I have studied theoretical and practical approaches to diet and health and am eager to share this knowledge with those who wish to learn more. Though food is an art form and a guilty pleasure, we must also remember that food is nourishment, and we eat to live.  Living well requires eating well.

Politics and industry complicate the world in which we eat; whole and natural ingredients have become overly processed. What began as healthy on the stalk, the vine, or in the soil, has more often than not been stripped of its natural benefits by refinement and modification. Food marketers flash pastoral images, health “buzz” words and calorie counts to sell their products in mass quantities. We have more food options than we know what to do with, yet we know so little about how our choices impact our bodies and our environment. My goal is to teach people how to make healthy food decisions.