Food, family and cooking have always been a passion for me. What started out as a way to love and care for my family has turned into a career. As I grew in my experience and knowledge as a chef my passion grew into the healing, energetic qualities of food, diet and lifestyle. I am a self taught chef and am passionate about holistic cooking, looking beyond the ingredients, recipes and techniques to see food as a unifying connector between every part of our being, the community and the natural world.

I learned that the benefit of whole nourishing food and the energy behind it was where I wanted to place my focus. The heart, Earth connection to our food is at the core of what I believe, teach, and live. The philosophy behind my food is simple. Cook simple food, grown and made with love and kindness and it will be medicine for your body.

Over the last 20 years in the Bay Area, as a caterer, personal chef, and teacher, I have had the pleasure of taking food and transforming it into nourishing meals for our bodies and souls.  For over a decade I have served as a lead catering chef at an upscale, award-winning restaurant. I have worked on events as intimate as 5 people to events as large as 500. I have been honored to cook for busy families, families celebrating births, a woman’s celebratory dinner for cancer recovery, wedding anniversaries and more.

I am particularly drawn to teaching others, especially children, to empower themselves through cooking. Helping children to learn to care for themselves with whole unprocessed foods is a way back into our own well-being. As for me, organic, local, sustainable is a way of life.  What I crave to eat are soups, nourishing broths, fresh vegetables and fruits from the farmers market, slow cooked braises, stews and seasonal salads. Inspiration is everywhere. My intention is to reach many hearts, to inspire and nourish them through the love of whole, simple, beautiful food, and through my stories. One of my most cherished stories came from the innocent love of my child.

Love is that intangible, invisible force that has the ability to transform anything in life, even our food. Long ago I was given a gift that has become this symbol for my cooking and life. This symbol demonstrates the frequency of love that flows through me while I cook. It was given to me by my oldest daughter when she was a child. I share the story to illustrate how miraculous this force can be and how the invisible is made visible in food.

One night on vacation, while walking on the beach, she stepped on something in the dark waters of Hawaii. She picked it up, handed it to me and proclaimed that this was for me. It was a beautiful white piece of coral in a shape of the most perfect heart. Not thinking much of it other than it was a sweet gesture, I tucked it into my pocket.  Hearts started coming in a procession that could not be dismissed and their stories have taken on a life of their own and continue to this current day.

How hearts show up in unexpected miraculous ways is vast and varied and beyond food. Hearts appear most when I am cooking. Food drops in the shape of hearts. Food sticks to my pan and when released, a heart appears. When I peel vegetables and in other unexpected ways. I now realize this heart stone has become the message I have come to share with this world. What it represents to me is the heart, Earth connection we all share together.