Veg Chef Training

Given my love of food and a good challenge, it’s no surprise that I became a personal chef and cooking teacher. As well as studying macrobiotic cooking at the Kushi Institute, in Becket, Mass., I received certification as a holistic health counselor from the Institute for Integrative nutrition in New York City.

Along the way I became inspired by people I met who had overcome life-threatening diseases simply by evolving from the Standard American Diet to a plant-based way of eating, and even managed to avoid a recommended double-mastectomy myself. My time at the Institute for Integrative nutrition lit a fire under me to get out there and make a positive difference in the world.

Knowing vegetarian cuisine’s potential to benefit people, animals, and the environment, teaching vegetarian cooking skills to as many people as possible became a passion. These experiences culminated in the opening of my own culinary academy: the Natural Kitchen Cooking School, where we support both novices and more-experienced chefs with public classes and a Chef’s Training Program (CTP), and guest teachers present various culinary preparations and topics such as raw foods, vegan baking, macrobiotic healing remedies, and the environmental implications of our food choices.

The popularity of vegetarian cooking is exploding, creating a demand for trained professionals to work as restaurateurs, teachers, personal chefs, and manufacturers. according to a recent study, 3.2 percent of US adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a plant-based diet. About 1 million of those consume no animal products. In addition, 10 percent of US adults, or 22.8 million people, say they follow a mostly vegetarian diet. The same study indicates that of the meat eaters surveyed, 5.2 percent, or 11.9 million people, are “definitely interested” in pursuing a vegetarian diet.

There are a number of high-quality, well-respected cooking academies across the country offering professional training for career-minded students and public classes for anyone seeking to expand her culinary repertoire. Vegetarian cooking classes are a great way to keep your menus exciting, learn new techniques, and make new friends. You can always take your culinary skills to the next level—even if you have perfected that recipe for chana masala.

With the veg movement gaining momentum every day, you can also find vegetarian cooking classes popping up at health food stores, yoga centers, and traditional cooking schools. Wherever you decide to study, learning new cooking techniques and recipes can reignite your love affair with vegetarian cooking, and may even set you on a new career path.

Get Cooking!
These culinary academies offer newbies and pros food-prep classes with a veg twist.

Bauman College
Locations: Penngrove, Calif.; Berkeley, Calif.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; and Boulder, Colo.

Living Light Culinary Arts Institute
Location: Fort Bragg, Calif.

The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts
Location: Austin, Texas

The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts
Location: New York, NY

The School of Natural Cookery
Location: Boulder, Colo.