My Story
The kitchen has always been a magical place for me. As a little girl I loved to watch my yiayia (that’s Greek for grandmother), curing olives and baking bread. I still remember the first time she gave me my own little ball of dough and let me shape it into a loaf. It might not have been as colorful as playdough, but when the aroma of freshly baked bread filled our kitchen, I instantly fell in love.
In 1999 I moved to San Francisco. As soon as I arrived, I felt I was home. I graduated from the California Culinary Academy and embarked on a 10-year adventure (and endurance test) working in some of San Francisco’s most notable restaurants: Rubicon, The Slanted Door, Ame, LuLu and Yoshi’s, where I was named “one of the city’s top pastry chefs,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s head food critic, Michael Bauer.
My culinary adventures have taken me to some places I never imagined: competing on the cooking/reality show Top Chef, building cities out of chocolate and Rice Krispies on Food Network, and eventually across the globe, to Greece.
Along the way, I got my certification in plant-based nutrition from Cornell University, and combined my love of cooking and fitness. I’m the author of Sweet & Skinny. My recipes with a light and healthy twist have been featured in Food & Wine, Oprah.com, Epicurious, The Talk on CBS, Access Hollywood, Home & Family, and more.
In 2015 I published my second cookbook, and finally got my own TV show, My Sweet & Skinny Life. It was an exciting and hectic time in my life. It also marked the end of my time living in Greece. I returned to the Bay Area and began to wonder. What’s next?
Along Came Tal
At that point in my life, my mother had given up on ever becoming a yiayia. She still reminds me of this, any chance she gets. But then, I met Tal, and everything changed. To steal a line from, When Harry Met Sally, “I knew. The way you know about a good melon.” We welcomed our daughter Talya in 2017, and our second daughter, Romy, in 2020.
Cooking with Talya & Romy
Nothing prepares you for the life changing moment when you become a parent. Every priority shifts. Sleep is forgotten. Getting to the supermarket becomes an achievement. You learn to cook with a baby on your hip, and how to pick up spoons with your toes.
Now that the girls are a bit older, I’m finally getting into some sort of life-work routine. But cooking is often still challenging. They both love helping mommy in the kitchen. So, I try to always have some simple and fun tasks that allow them to participate in dinner preparations.
Latest Posts
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