I am a Natural Chef & Holistic Nutritionist cooking for clients requiring specialty diets, focusing on those fighting cancer. As one of the few professional chefs practicing this specialty, Trudy approaches each client’s health challenges holistically, leveraging her extensive knowledge of food ingredients and their inherent healing properties within the framework of clients’ specific cancer treatment plans and personal food preferences, ensuring her clients’ overall health and wellness.
I started cooking for clients with cancer early on in my career as a personal chef. What I quickly discovered – and what clients newly diagnosed with cancer rarely anticipate – are the harsh side effects chemotherapy and radiation treatments have in preventing one’s desire to eat, minimizing the type of foods one wants to eat and negating one’s ability to taste food at all, symptoms that often change throughout treatment.
Unfortunately, within the clinical cancer treatment process, enjoying food is mostly overlooked and disregarded, which is a shame because this is the time when the body needs nutrition the most in order to maintain weight, heal the body and fight the disease. So, I fill a critical niche in working with clients to not just map out unique food wellness plans, but creating food options that they can look forward to. There’s nothing more rewarding than solving that puzzle whereby a client, in the midst of chemo, cannot only taste food, but enjoy the act of eating again.
I’ve been passionate about food for as long as I can remember. Whether it was working in restaurants or traveling the world and trying different foods, it was inevitable that I became a chef. But besides the food itself, I was curious about the healing power of foods. I wanted to really learn about and understand ingredients for their medicinal values and the role they play in fighting and preventing disease and also ensuring physical and mental health. It’s what led me to go to culinary school and also pursue a master’s in holistic health.
I am often asked what makes my services unique compared to other chefs, nutritionists, and dieticians. For the most part, chefs are trained in ingredients and flavors while nutritionists and dieticians approach food within clinical and nutritional frameworks. As a personal chef, I approach food within those constructs too, but because of my holistic health and nutrition background, I’m equally focused on harnessing the medicinal components of food. I’ve spent years studying the healing power of food down to the base ingredient level and then working to create delicious dishes and diets that are fortified with other equally powerful ingredients to strengthen and heal the body. Furthermore, I actively seek and learn about new ingredients, foods and diets long before they become trends. I stay current on cancer and chronic illness related news and breakthroughs. Lastly, as a former social worker for HIV/AIDS patients, I think my natural empathy has allowed clients to not only share their lives with me, and I’ve been privileged to build not just professional relationships but lasting friendships.
As a firm believer and practitioner of holistic health, my hope for my clients is that they, too, embrace it as a lifestyle. Whether someone is battling cancer, other illness, or just trying to espouse a healthier lifestyle, I want to teach people to fundamentally change the role food plays in their lives. I want people to understand that good health isn’t just about reducing fat, sugar, and calories, but adding whole, clean, fresh and organic foods as much as possible. By treating food as something that works for us instead of against us, we’re better able to build and maintain healthier bodies, minds, and souls which, hopefully, leads to longer, happier lives.
Peace and good health!
I am the owner of The Healing Hearth. Since founding it in 2005, I have cooked for clients requiring all kinds of specialty diets, with a specific focus on those fighting cancer. As one of the very few professional chefs practicing this specialty, I approach each client’s health challenges holistically, leveraging my extensive knowledge of food ingredients and their inherent healing properties within the framework of the client’s specific cancer treatment plans and personal food preferences, with the singular goal of ensuring my client’s overall health and wellness. My expertise and discretion have led me to work with high profile clients around the world.
Outside of my private chef services, I am the holistic chef at Alegria Community Living, serve as an adjunct culinary instructor at Bauman College, cates special events and consult for food companies and other health and wellness organizations.
I hold a B.S. in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota, natural chef certification from Bauman College, and an M.A. in Holistic Health, specializing in Holistic Nutrition from John F. Kennedy University. I have worked with noted authors Rebecca Katz and Michael Pollan and been featured on The Food Network.
Berkeley, California
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