About Me

Although my chef jacket defined most of my work up until now, I’ve been devolving. My once self-proclaimed “clean, simple, and sexy” cooking style has taken a back seat to simpler cooking methods. I now prefer fewer ingredients with fresh elements that harmonize texture and convenience. So “what you see is what you get” as “clean comfort” are more of my vibe now.

My work as a corporate consultant under my brand Centered Chef continues. It’s where I create training programs that empower employees and patients to eat “better for you foods”. My food philosophies and 15 years of culinary experience have opened doors for me to consult and train within a diverse range of industries, where I connect brands and people to improved relationships among their employees and customers, with food.

My own personal story began almost 20 years ago. After a lengthy personal struggle both mentally and physically, I needed to reinvent my career and lifestyle. I was 50 pound heavier than my current weight. My doctor wanted to prescribe antidepressants, blood pressure, and cholesterol medications. This was compounded with the fact I was deemed a pre-Type 2 diabetic, had asthma, and smoked, something had to change.

I was lost and needed a paradigm shift. It was a huge risk, but I enrolled in culinary school at Kendall College and soon after, moved to France. I was alive and thriving again! I apprenticed Chef Jean-Jacques Galliffet at his restaurants La Cerisaie, Auberge de la Valloire, and Le Moulin. It was this cooking experience, utilizing natural, regional ingredients, where I began to mold my understanding of pure food and its implications on my own health.

With my new knowledge, focus, and passion, I underwent a physical and mental transformation. I found that my biggest breakthrough was that “The only thing I can control is how I react to scenarios in life.” From there I created a formula for eating, socializing and exercising that changed everything. I then went on to create a business called Centered Chef Culinary Studio, from which my team and I not only prepared nourishing foods that fueled people, but tried to create a business where we could “teach people to fish”. It was a wonderfully utopias idea that took blood and sweat, along with tons of money and tears to manifest.

This is my story of the rise, fall and reckoning of my idealism, my business pursuits, the relationships I forged along the way and the vulnerabilities that surfaced around my virtues and my own personal wellness that I still had yet to learn.