Food is my love language.
Nourishment is my ministry.
I believe a delicious life is built one nourishing choice at a time—and sometimes the most nourishing choice is letting someone else handle your meals.
That is where I come in.
Food has been part of my story for as long as I can remember.
As a kid, I was more interested in watching Julia Child, Pierre Franey and Yan Can Cook than cartoons—although I did make time for the Smurfs.
As a young person, I was overweight, and my teenage years became a turning point. Living with my godmother Phyllis changed my trajectory: through her example, influence and expectations, I began learning a different relationship with food, movement and my body—from farmers markets and cooking healthy food from scratch to making movement part of everyday life. That shift changed more than my body; it changed my confidence and helped shape the work I wanted to do.
I wanted to become for other people what Phyllis had been for me: an educator, an inspiration, a source of support and sometimes the catalyst that helps someone make a nourishing pivot in their own life.
Through all of it, I’ve believed that food is about more than what’s on the plate.
It’s nourishment for the life you’re living—and fuel for the life you’re creating.
For years, my answer was no.
For much of my career, when people asked if I cooked for private clients, my answer was simple:
“No, I don’t do that.”
I loved teaching people about food. I loved showing them how to shop, cook and nourish themselves well. I believed deeply in the whole teach someone to fish philosophy.
I loved inspiring people to believe in their own ability to make delicious, nutritious food—in their own way.
Then life taught me something I hadn’t fully understood before:
Knowing what you need and having the capacity to provide it are two very different things.
While caring for my husband during his experience with lung cancer, I knew how important nourishing food was—for him and for me. I had the knowledge. I had the culinary skills. I understood the nutrition.
What I didn’t always have was the capacity.
There were appointments. Decisions. Medications. Work. Parenting. Worry. Exhaustion. All the things that come with loving and caring for someone during an incredibly demanding season of life.
And we still had to eat.
When friends prepared meals for us, I experienced food and culinary service differently.
Those meals weren’t simply food.
They were care. They were a load off. They were a life vest.
Someone had thought about what we would eat. Shopped for it. Prepared it. Packaged it. And placed nourishing food within reach during a time when my own energy was needed elsewhere.
They had taken one necessary thing off my plate.
And I never forgot what that felt like.
That experience changed the way I understood my purpose, my career and how I could be of service.
I had spent years teaching people how to nourish themselves well. But I came to understand that sometimes people don’t need more information, another recipe or another skill to learn.
Sometimes they need the meal itself to be handled.
They need someone to shop. Chop. Cook. Clean. Someone who can take meals off their task list so they can put their time and energy toward whatever life is asking of them.
Today, when I enter a client’s kitchen, I bring all my experiences with me: my culinary training, nutrition education, years of teaching and cooking—and the lived understanding that sometimes nourishment means allowing someone else to handle the meals.
That’s why I cook for people now. And it’s how Mix And Match Meal Prep came to be.
Let me take meals off your plate—and help you nourish your most delicious life.
A career rooted in food, teaching + nourishment.
Experience
Whole Foods Market
Demo Specialist · Healthy Eating Specialist · Metro Healthy Eating Specialist
Helping people discover, prepare and enjoy foods that support their health and wellbeing.
Just Food
Community Food Education Coordinator
Bringing food education into communities and helping people build practical skills around cooking and nourishment.
Kaiser Permanente
Nutrition, Culinary + Wellness Speaker & Educator
Speaking and teaching at wellness conferences, community events and farmers markets.
The Endless Feast · PBS
Television Host
An exploration and celebration of local and sustainable agriculture across North America—and the farmers, chefs and communities bringing it to the table.
I was one of several hosts in season one and the sole host in season two.
Yes, you can Google it. 😉
Restaurants
Rocking Horse Cafe Mexicano · EJ’s Luncheonette · Hell’s Kitchen · Millennium Hotel Restaurant · Le Pain Quotidien
Education
NYU
Food + Restaurant Management
Natural Gourmet Institute
Culinary Certification
Cornell
Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate
And when I’m not in the kitchen...
You’ll find me spending quality time with my son, roller skating, dancing to the music in my mind, taking long walks around town and eating out with friends.
These days, I’m also happy to simply come over and cook.
Because sometimes knowing what you need is enough. You don’t have to be the one who prepares it.
Let’s make life delicious.