Welcome to the CULINARY NUTRITION CONFERENCE

*The Culinary Nutrition Conference was live in 2021.*

Enjoy the replay of the panel discussions, plus some extra special food demonstrations!

Session Details

Panel 1: Stories of Transformation: How Culinary Nutrition Can Transform Your Health

 

 

In this session, our panelists explore:

  • How to accept the role nutrition plays in our wellbeing
  • Braving the first step in taking responsibility for our health
  • How to cope with naysayers in our lives
  • How natural nutrition can merge with conventional health protocols
  • How to maintain health practices long term

Featured Panelists

Related Posts and Resources


Panel 2: Taking Your Food Product Idea To Market (and Retail!)

In this session, our panelists explore:

  • How to know if your idea is a winner
  • How to best test your idea in a low risk way
  • When to take on investors (or is it even needed?)
  • How to navigate regulations
  • How to scale into commercial production
  • Moving from market to retail

Featured Panelists

Related Posts and Resources


Cooking Demonstration

Download the recipe

In this session, our speaker explore:

  • The power of healing spices
  • Simple substitutes for common allergens
  • How to integrate spices into your everyday cooking
  • The joy of making something new
  • A simple beverage that is a staple in traditional Indian cooking

Featured Culinary Nutrition Expert

Related Posts and Resources

CNE Homepage Banner - Gain Confidence In The Kitchen


Panel 3: How Your Passion For Health and Food Can Change The World One Community At A Time

In this session, our panelists explore:

  • How to get started in not-for-profit work
  • What food security areas need support now
  • How to make a living and fulfill on a bigger purpose
  • How to create sustainable food systems
  • Surprising ways culinary nutrition knowledge can serve local communities

Featured Panelists

Related Posts and Resources


Cooking Demonstration

Download the recipe

In this session, our speaker explore:

  • Practical meal-time solutions for busy people
  • Tricks to get healthy meals on the table fast
  • Simple shortcuts to make meal prep easier
  • Keys to nourishing expectant and new parents
  • A meal that is a winner at the family dinner table

Featured Culinary Nutrition Expert

Related Posts and Resources


Panel 4: One Meal For All – Getting Little Ones (And Selective Older Ones) On Board

In this session, our panelists explore:

  • How to introduce healthier food into the home
  • Effective ways to talk to your kids (and partners!) about food choices
  • Establishing a healthy relationship with food from a young age
  • What language to avoid when talking to kids about food
  • How to best manage the selective eaters in the home

Featured Panelists

Related Posts and Resources


MEET OUR PANELISTS and speakers

Panel 1: Stories of Transformation: How Culinary Nutrition Can Transform Your Health

Panel 1: Jenny Bradley

Jenny Bradley

Jenny has been thriving with her cancer diagnosis since 2017. She equips others to confidently advocate for themselves and have more peace and less overwhelm on their cancer journeys. Jenny has a Master of Arts in Intellectual Leadership and is a Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert who shares her cancer insights and tips through her Shrink the Mutant School.

Instagram: @shrinkthemutant

Website: shrinkthemutantschool.com


Melanie

Melanie Connolly

Melanie is a Culinary Nutrition Expert and Functional Nutrition & Lifestyle Practitioner. She graduated from the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program at the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, The Institute of Transformational Nutrition (ITN), The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and Holistic Nutrition Labs Full Body Systems Program. She is also a Program Coach in the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program. Melanie’s focus is women’s health and teaching strategies and tools for getting healthy meals on the table.

Instagram: @melanieconnolly

Website: melanieconnolly.com


Sue Valentine

As a psycho-spiritual mentor for over 20 years, Sue works mainly with folks living with cancer. She practises holistically, integrating body, mind, emotions and spirit with people who want to transform their minds and bodies to create the best chance for healing.

 

Instagram: @lsueval


Tracey SomerfordTracey Somerford

Tracey is a personal chef and a mother to a little girl. Her passion is to help others take the stress out of meal planning and preparation. Whether you want help with recipes or would rather let her do the heavy lifting, she’s there for you!


Valerie Whitt

Valerie is a busy full-time working mom who discovered the power of food and the power of slowing down to create healthier ways of living for her family. After experiencing a health scare several years ago, she discovered that food can be medicine and made a full recovery. It has become Valerie’s mission to help busy families find ways to live healthier through nutrition and organizing life to be slower. 


Panel 2: Taking Your Food Product Idea To Market (and Retail!)

Panel 1: Candi Haas and Rita Childers

Candi Haas and Rita Childers

Candi and Rita started selling healthier-for-you items four years ago at their local farmers’ market in St. Louis, MO, after the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program. They took a year and a half to perfect a shelf-stable recipe, and fill the void in the middle aisles of the grocery store with a pantry staple of plant-based goodness. You can now find Core and Rind Cashew Cheesy Sauce in grocery stores across North America.

Instagram: @coreandrind

Website: coreandrind.com


Christine Bullajian

Christine is the founder and CEO of Paleo Nut, a line of nutritious, grain-free and Paleo baking mixes. Becoming a Culinary Nutrition Expert gave her the extra confidence she needed to develop her recipes into products that families can enjoy and feel good about eating.

 

Instagram: @paleo_nut

Website: paleonut.com


Keisha LukeKeisha Luke

Keisha Luke is a Culinary Nutritionist/Digestive Educator, and owner of Keisha Luke Nutrition & Catering which includes juice cleanses and healthy meal delivery. She focuses on how to nutritionally feed the body with the right foods to sustain energy levels, maintain healthy weight management, stabilize blood sugar levels, promote a healthy digestive system on-the-go, while combating cravings.

Instagram: @keishanutrition

Website: keishaluke.com


Renée Mackey Burson

Renée creates thoughtful, therapeutic snacks with real whole food ingredients. The Empower-MINT Bar for brain health, the Golden Glory Bar with anti-inflammatory properties in mind, and the energy-boosting Mocha MCT Bar are all fresh from the fridge. A super rad Mojo Berry Power Granola was also launched this spring. 

Instagram: @soulpurposebars.ca

Website: soulpurposebars.ca


Shiru MachariaShiru Macharia

Shiru teaches cooking classes, leads group programs and coaches clients to help them achieve their weight management goals and develop healthier relationships with food. She also has a nutritious snack company, Nutrisnack, that creates trail mixes and granola in her local community of Nairobi, Kenya.

Instagram: @my_planted_kitchen_

Website: myplantedkitchen.com


Cooking Demonstration 1 with Geeta Sakhuja, Masala Chai

Geeta Sakhuja

Geeta is a Cooking Instructor with her roots in Marketing & Advertising. She has been working with healing spices and practicing Indian cooking techniques in her home kitchen in Toronto over the last 10 years. Geeta’s virtual Indian cooking classes help you discover the power of healing spices to make healthy and easy Indian recipes free from common allergens such as gluten and dairy, without sacrificing the authentic flavours you enjoy.

Instagram: @geeta.sakhuja

Special Offer:

Mix Veg Pakoras + Masala Chai Demo (On-demand)
3-week Indian Summer Series
Use Password: CULINARYSPICES and get 10% off


Panel 3: How Your Passion For Health and Food Can Change The World One Community At A Time

Alica Diehl

Alica Diehl

Alica is a change agent for a regenerative food system. After 6 years designing and leading cooking and nutrition education programming for nonprofits, she pivoted into the for-profit realm. As Hungry Harvest’s Social Impact Manager, Alica developed business models that redistributed rescued produce to people facing significant barriers to healthy food access otherwise. Throughout her professional past, she’s also been a personal chef, collective CSA manager, and urban farm volunteer. She’s now pursuing an MBA, specializing in Sustainable Business Practices, at the University of Oregon.

Linkedin: @Alica Diehl

Website: amdiehl.work


Katherine BoggsKatherine Boggs

After completing the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program, Katherine got involved with Thrive for Good, putting the knowledge gained from the course to use in a different way. Katherine spent ten years of her childhood in Kenya so she’s thrilled to be a part of the work Thrive does and was lucky enough to visit and teach at the training centre in Kenya in January 2020.


Melissa FlynnMelissa Flynn

Melissa has been a long-time food advocate in Chicago, starting a community garden and evening farmers’ market on the north side of Chicago. For six years she was the executive director of Chicago’s Green City Market which is a nationally recognized farmers’ market. She was also named number 7 on 2020’s The 26 Most Influential People in Chicago list by Chicago Social Magazine. She now shares her love for food and getting others to learn to nourish themselves for a lifetime in the classroom at DePaul College Prep High School and in the community teaching cooking classes.


Richard BlackwoodRichard Blackwood

Richard is a community instigator, cooking-from-scratch enthusiast, and avid plant parent. He currently works for Impact Kitchen as a Restaurant Manager and Community Outreach & Diversity Coordinator. After having a life-altering accident, Richard turned to cooking to zone out and find peace. He found joy in cooking on the fly and being more mindful of the food he ate. In 2015, Richard became a Culinary Nutrition Expert and also found his passion for advocating against food inequality within marginalized communities.

Instagram: @rtblackwood


Shannon MayernikShannon Mayernik

Shannon Mulligan-Mayernik is an herbalist and plant medicine maker based in Northern New Jersey and the Co-Owner of Mayernik Kitchen, a modern-day herbal apothecary. Not only is Shannon creating a community around all things local and homemade, but she is also striving to educate on growing and using medicinal herbs to enhance your everyday routines and rituals.

Instagram: @mayernikkitchen

Website: mayernikkitchen.com


Cooking Demonstration 2 with Lindsay Taylor, Quinoa Fried Rice

Lindsay Taylor

Lindsay is a cookbook author, health researcher, doula, and mom who transforms an academic background into real-food, real-world, and practical solutions to help modern moms feel supported, nourished, and energized as they embrace the challenges and joys of new motherhood.

Instagram: @the.food.doula

Next Virtual Cooking Class: thefooddoula.com


Panel 4: One Meal For All – Getting Little Ones (And Selective Older Ones) On Board

Christine Flynn

Christine Flynn

Christine is the Executive Chef and Partner at iQ Food Co., a restaurant group with multiple locations in Toronto. She is co-author of the book How to Eat with One Hand: Recipes and Other Nourishment for Expectant and New Parents. With over 20 years of experience in hospitality, her simple, unfussy food showcases her passion for vibrant colours, textures and flavours.

Instagram: @theyamburglar

Website: howtoeatwithonehand.com


Cindy SprattCindy Spratt

Cindy is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Eating Psychology Counselor & Eating Disorder Recovery Coach specializing in Culinary Nutrition. Through workshops, working with kids, individual counsel and retreats, Cindy weaves her areas of expertise by infusing nutritional education with emotional guidance and culinary passion. It is her mission to help individuals make realistic, long-term, and sustainable life changes for thriving health.

Instagram: @cindysprattnutrition

Website: cindyspratt.com


Erin YsunzaErin Ysunza

Erin is a certified Culinary Nutrition Expert as well as the owner of Family Recipe, LLC, an Oregon-based business dedicated to making meal planning and nutrient-rich cooking accessible to the whole family. Erin lives in Oregon with her husband and two young kids, ages six and three. Together, they love gardening, cooking, trying new flavors, and creating in the kitchen.

Instagram: @family_recipe_llc

Website: familyrecipellc.com/


Michael TannenbaumMichael Tanenbaum

Michael is the founder and editor-in-chief of Consciously Kosher, an online resource dedicated to educating both the Jewish community and the general public on the overall health benefits of eating a kosher diet. The recipes are simple and quick, to accommodate parents juggling careers and multiple kids.

Instagram: @consciouslykosher

Website: consciouslykosher.com


Michelle FoxMichelle Fox

Michelle Fox is a Culinary Nutritionist, mom, wife, friend, and yogi. It is her mission to build healthier communities and bring more joy into home kitchens. Michelle has studied at New York University, Inner Connection Institute, Apothecary Tinctura, Arvigo Institute and the Academy of Culinary Nutrition.

Instagram: @michellefoxlove

Website: michellefox.com


Culinary Nutrition Conference Host

Meghan Telpner

Meghan Telpner

Meghan is a Toronto-based author, speaker, nutritionist, and the founder of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, and head instructor of the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program. She’s written two bestselling books: UnDiet: Eat Your Way to Vibrant Health and The UnDiet Cookbook. Meghan’s success in cultivating a global community of UnDiet enthusiasts and Culinary Nutrition Experts has garnered her a feature in Forbes, and ranked her as one of the top 100 female entrepreneurs in Canada. She is married to Josh Gitalis and together they have a 3-year-old son.

Instagram: @meghantelpner  @culinarynutrition

Website: meghantelpner.com  culinarynutrition.com