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Eating is something we do numerous times a day. But as we all know, feeding ourselves can take many different forms. Dinner can consist of anything from a handful of nuts to a bowl of cereal to a cheeseburger and fries to a chicken stir-fry with brown rice. Sometimes we are more mindful about it than others. Most people want to be healthy, but eating a whole foods diet with no processed foods means cooking for yourself, and not everyone makes the time for it.

More and more people are waking up to the dangers of pesticides and genetically-modified foods. And that is only on the personal level. On the more global level, people are realizing they can be just as sated from eating foods that were grown locally rather than on the other side of the planet.

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan has been read and discussed by practically everyone I know. I consider the book life-changing; while I thought I knew quite a bit about food, I had no idea that high fructose corn syrup was in so many products. I am now much more careful and conscious about which products I buy, as are most people I know. This gives me great hope that how we spend our food dollars can actually change policy.

A bit before this new consciousness about food exploded, I quit my job in journalism and decided to become a natural foods chef. What motivated me were not dreams of becoming the next Food Network star or cooking high-end food at three-star restaurants, but the desire to cook healthy food for people who probably would eat take-out otherwise.

My mother died of breast cancer six years ago. While of course we have no way to know this, a chance encounter she had with a researcher many years ago led her to believe that being exposed to pesticides as a pre-adolescent was the culprit.

My career change was a few years in coming after her death, but I think it is partially responsible. Not only because I wanted to improve my own diet, but because cooking is the one thing I do now that makes me feel close to her.

My mother was an excellent self-taught chef, who also worked full-time. I was in high school when she requested that my father and I cook one night a week. While at first I balked, I soon realized how much I enjoyed it.

So it is no big surprise where I am now. I didn’t apply to the Culinary Institute of America or similar institutions; I attended Bauman College, a small school with three Bay Area campuses that I had never heard of myself before I stumbled upon it on the internet one day. Rather than sweetbreads and fois gras, our raw materials included beets and Brussels sprouts. Our produce was always organic. I learned more ways to cook kale than I could have imagined. It was just what I wanted.

I come from the Jewish tradition, which has an intricate system of laws about what we can and cannot eat. And moreover, what can and cannot be eaten together. I was not raised with these rules, nor do I practice them now. However, I feel that I am keeping kosher in a way that makes sense to me. Keeping kosher is meant to instill a quality of mindfulness to eating, and I feel I am being mindful with every trip to the store or farmer’s market. My keeping kosher means buying wild salmon instead of farmed. It means belonging to a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), where I support a local organic farmer by paying in advance, and receiving a box of organic produce each week. I have actually visited the farm, and have met the farmer several times, which makes me feel more connected to my food. It means shopping at farmer’s markets. And it means buying locally-grown fruits and vegetables, rather than things like bananas, which I know were flown in from Costa Rica or somewhere further.

While certainly most people can learn enough skills to be somewhat proficient in the kitchen, a lot of people do not make it a priority. I decided to pursue this career path because I wanted to help people eat healthier than they were before. Many of my clients are families who have just had a baby. My services are often given as a gift to a sleep-deprived mother and father. They are certainly among my most grateful clients!

Alix Wall lives in Oakland and cooks healthy vegetarian food from around the world using organic, local and seasonal produce. For more information about her personal chef business, visit www.theorganicepicure.com or call her at (415) 793-9074.

 
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