Culinary passion

Last night i was lucky enough to reunite with an old high school friend, who is a culinary chef. I discovered much about the way in which a passion for food can span across many professions. I often think that nutritionists must be the only career that loves to analyze food and think about food, but i fail to give credit to the chefs who make masterpieces with food and help people fall in love with food.

Our conversation helped me realize that culinary cooking is much different than the cooking classes I take in my education at Bastyr University. But especially in Seattle, culinary cooking is becoming more advanced with incorporating nutrition aspects. Many restaurants are having to prepare gluten free items and be knowledgeable about food allergens and additives. As my friend stated, the two hot topics in the culinary world are locality and simplicity. This sounds very similar to themes across my nutrition education. I think in the future, it will be important for nutritionists and chefs to "share notes." At least that is what came up in our conversation, because we need them to make the food taste delicious and they need us to educate them on how to make food health promoting. Even with the economy, people are still choosing to eat out and I always think people will make room in their budgets for good restaurants.

Overall, when people have a passion for food, amazing things come of it. For my chef friend, he loves his job, because the food he makes will always be apart of the memory that his customers make in his restaurant. I love my career, because food holds so much emotion for people, and i want to help my clients heal from negative emotions around food and gain control over their nutrition.

I encourage anyone with a passion for food to study what aspect intrigues them, and cultivate it into a career. Food is love, sorrow, happiness, grief, and memories are made with it many times a day. There is so much work to be done in the growing field of nutrition and cooking, and i feel so privileged to be apart of it.

Just for fun, check out to search for local cooking school in your area!