A safe space for wild women

My love for food began at a young age, when I was still finding my way in the world and figuring out what was important for me. It wasn’t loud at first, just quiet creative nights in the kitchen, utilizing what little I had in the beginning of my adulthood to create delicious meals and connection with loved ones.

I always had a vision of how I wanted my creations to be presented, regardless of what I was pouring into at the time. It wasn’t just about the art, the creative process, or the materials. It was about the feeling. The way people felt when they consumed it. The world I lived in while I built it. The big picture has always been just as important as the fine details. As above, so below.

At 19, I had passed my MBLEx to become a Professional Massage Therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah. A huge achievement for me at the time, and my first clue as to where my life would take me in the future. Everything I learned about bodywork I carry with me to this day, including anatomy, physiology and what sparked something in me the most - energy work. This season of my life consisted of fine tuning empathy, the beginning of understanding how to protect my own energy, and transmuting not only the energy that is unseen, but physical energy as well, within the body. I loved the satisfaction of the way my client’s body had changed after a session. Bodywork is such a powerful & healing modality, and again I felt this connection to the big picture while the details of my psyche started to reveal themselves. Healing starts at a quantum level, and this knowledge would shape my whole reality.

At 24, I found myself working in more kitchens. In the spirit of true rebellion, I couldn’t commit to any one job, career, daily routine. I feel a lot of chefs find themselves in kitchens for this reason. At first they were just jobs, but when I landed at Buds and eventually Boltcutter in Salt Lake City, Utah, it had become something more for me. I was dedicated to my health and was diving headfirst into my love for the environment and other sentient beings and distaste for the US Agricultural practices. I was vegan for around 2 years, and this is what truly sparked my love for cooking. The creativity, science and nutrition that goes into plant-based cooking intrigued me and I found great success there. I worked my way from the bottom to the Executive Chef, and again, here is the big picture. Not only was my job surrounding culinary arts, but community and kitchen structure. So many moving parts, made me feel so alive and was my first taste of blending all of my gifts in one project. I studied nutrition to take my knowledge to the next level, deepening my relationship with quantum physics & biochemistry. I’m forever grateful for this experience; it changed cooking for me - from just a job to a passion and life purpose.

In 2024, I got a call from a long time friend, Harper Ness. She was debuting her own passion project - a yoga retreat - and asked if I would be the chef for her next event. This was truly the launching pad for my career and self-actualization. I was working an office job at the time, and this felt like something that could feed my soul while I went through the motions of daily life. Harper’s vision for Not Your Guru’s Yoga Retreat aligns so deeply with my own life philosophy. Her humility, dedication to knowledge and pursuit of happiness is intoxicating; and so the partnership was born.

It’s a blessing to have a friend that you work so well with, can communicate through stressors and last minute pivots, and explore and expand your creative visions. Harper & I still work together on retreats, with each one expanding further than the last from our hearts & depth of our souls.

Getting ultimate creative freedom for menu development and executing it independently pushed me into a new version of myself, the one I’ve always known was inside, but could only be revealed through years of trial and error. Cooking for others is a love language for me, while I cook for myself often, it doesn’t bring the same fulfillment as nourishing others. Leaning into this nurturing and caring self has brought a softness into my life that nothing else can replicate. Cooking is so much more for me than just a series of tasks. Sometimes recipes come to me in dreams (seriously, dreamt of a peach glazed salmon and woke up and immediately went to the store), and I can only attribute it to the fact that food is our direct energy source for life. It’s what makes us strong, or weak. The biochemistry behind how food reacts with our bodies, the healing aspect, the community & connection, the euphoria, the trial & error of trying new ingredients and recipes, the quantum level of it all- it checks all my boxes.

In the background, my love and passion for women’s rights was growing to be a force of nature. I am a faithful advocate of body positivity, having to overcome my own body image struggles. Through years of yoga practice, I learned meditation, mind-body connection and the fact that strong bodies do not all look the same. I hope to use my passion for culinary arts as an act of rebellion against body shaming, and to help bring back the life, love and genuine enjoyment into women’s bodies and wellness communities. This is my current venture and expansion into this world I’ve created.

I’ve always been an extremely curious individual. I consider myself a student of life, and am in constant pursuit of knowledge and truth. I value humility, respect, and integrity. Everything I do, I do with all the excellence I have in me. It doesn’t always look the same, but each day I’m committed to growth and mindfulness. The more I grow, the less I know. I take solace in that, and continue to work towards the self embodiment of unconditional love and acceptance.