Living in Alaska and being vegan is another experience! This is the land of hunting and fishing. My husband used to hunt and fish all the time. He actually still loves to fish and over the last year we have incorporated Alaskan seafood back into our diet. Most restaurants here are focused on serving “Alaskan” foods which include salmon, halibut, reindeer sausage, etc. It’s not a very plant-based friendly place to live for sure.

Although I’m a personal chef, the first few months of cooking were quite challenging. We had a lot of hit and misses. Trying to replace the textures, flavors, and cooking techniques I’ve learned over the years and have been accustomed to was an experience in itself.

But I was determined to make it work. I dug deep into learning how to cook plant-based foods correctly and deliciously. Over the first couple of years, I took several courses in plant-based nutrition & cooking.

I started by taking a course to become a Certified Nutrition Specialist through ISSA. I’ve been big into fitness and nutrition for years and wanted to add this to my resume. It was good for me to know how food affects the body’s functionality.

After successfully completing that course, I learned about the Plant-Based Nutrition Certification through the Center for Nutrition Studies at eCornell. This course by far was what changed my mindset completely. It gave me a more clear vision on how I wanted to live my life from now on.

But now that I was educated on what plant-based nutrition was and how it worked for your body and the environment, I still needed to learn how to cook some good-tasting meals with nothing but plant-based ingredients.

That’s when I found Rouxbe Cooking School!!

This was best investment I could have made in starting to live this new life. We all need to eat and I wasn’t going to settle for eating mediocre plant-based meals. Not to mention this was a must for my business as I was transitioning to being a Plant-Based Chef only. The courses I took helped me learn the techniques, flavor combinations & ingredients that work the best to achieve the desired end result – whether it be a vegan ricotta, chocolate torte, or creamy alfredo type sauces. I earned my Plant-Based Professional Certification, Culinary RX Certification AND the Essential Vegan Desserts Certification (see my review of the dessert course here). The dessert course, specifically, helped me earn “The Most Creative Desserts” in the Anchorage Vegan Chef Challenge 2024. Educating myself on all things plant-based was the best thing I could have done to help keep me on track and make a variety of flavorful plant-based meals.

My journey so far has been the most fulfilling experience and I invite you to share my journey and learn more about plant-based cooking, products and lifestyle through this website.

I sure hope you will find some information here that will inspire & motivate you but most of all help you. Please be in touch with comments and suggestions. I would love to hear from you all!

xoxo-

Angie