Welcome, thank you for taking the time to learn more about me. I am a southern California based private chef and cooking instructor. I have been servicing Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Palm Springs since 2019. I have also serviced Bend, New York City, San Francisco, Miami, Cabo, Hawaii, and Phoenix on travel assignments. In 2018, I serviced collegiate athletes in Tampa, FL.I fulfill the needs of my clients through in-home cooking, meal prep, full service dinner parties, brunches and events, cooking classes, and catering for celebrations, corporate offices, and offsite meetings. I am also a cooking instructor at Lazy Acres Natural Market (Los Feliz), CocuSocial (Los Angeles), and Mosaic Gardens (Los Angeles). I am part of the talent team at I Have This Friend Concierge service, and I teach outdoor camping cooking classes at music festivals.
My expertise in cooking was developed through a combination of diverse experiences. I started in the kitchen at the age of 4, learning the joys of cooking from my Italian-American father. As my passion grew, so did my knowledge base from cookbooks, cooking shows, and experimentation with techniques and ingredients. My childhood friends' Mom's taught me how to make various dishes from Laos, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, and Cuba. My Grandparents and Great Aunties passed down family recipes for lumpia, pancit, and adobo from the Philippines. In college, I developed an understanding of nutrition through the athletics program at the University of South Florida where I was a member of the top 25 ranked women’s soccer team. My experiences as a collegiate athlete and a meal prep chef for college athletes inform my meal prep services to this day. I also partook in a 6 month internship with Laura Reiley, previous food critic at the Tampa Bay Times.
In 2019, I relocated my business to Southern California and took an interest in farm to table food. One of my first positions was a hybrid personal chef/garden hand, where I learned the basics of tending to a home garden and cooking with the produce it supplied.
In 2021, I adventured on a three month backpacking trip through 9 European countries; learning how to make homemade pasta from a Nonna in the Italian countryside, utilizing ingredients and cooking in every city which I stayed, and working on organic farms in the Netherlands and France via WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities For Organic Farming).
My journey through food has brought me to Los Angeles, a city abundant in premium ingredients and diverse food culture. I love cooking seasonally and using lots of color. I love ingredients such as ginger, lemongrass, chili, coconut milk, oyster sauce. I love teaching and discussing food with others, and I love the process of serving and creating memorable experiences for others.
