About Me

My fascination with cooking began at 14 years old while working in the kitchen of a retirement community in Minnesota. I was quickly enamored by the power food had to forge connections, to nourish, to honor culture, and to obey tradition, even if tradition meant serving liver & onions every Tuesday night.

After high school, I moved to Seattle and studied abroad in South India as a University of Washington student, acquiring a 3-month internship in an organic kitchen. While preparing dosas or mixing millet cakes, the owner, Anandi, taught me the importance of organic whole food nutrition and mindfulness while cooking.

This pivotal experience inspired me to seek a degree in Nutrition and Culinary Arts from renowned Bastyr University.  

Since graduating from Bastyr, I’ve applied my passion for local and organic food, writing, and community activism to the Puget Sound region.

I have worked as a personal chef, caterer, and chef in Seattle restaurants (Sutra, Harvest Beat, London Plane, Bar Sajor), have lead culinary tours around Croatia and Hungary through Passionate Nutrition, and have worked as a food writer for various organizations. I’ve taught hundreds of nutrition workshops to kids and adults through The Beecher’s Foundation and have taught cooking classes of my own virtually and in-home. The pandemic inspired me to launch this website and to create more of a presence in the virtual realm with recipes, writing, and classes.

In 2022 I moved back to Minnesota to be closer to family and cheese curds. While a toddler and a baby on the way is keeping me plenty busy, I look forward to immersing myself in the emerging food scene of the twin cities.

About the Name

For the love of cuts and burns is inspired by my first substantial catering experience. Loving both music and food, it was an initial goal of mine upon graduating from Bastyr to find a way to combine the two. In 2013, I was given the opportunity.

For four days, against the backdrop of last minute acoustic rehearsals and a frantic festival staff tying up loose ends, my partner Emma and I prepared eight meals for nearly 200 staff members and musicians playing the Doe Bay music festival on Orcas Island. After the third twenty-hour workday of bustling around a kitchen barely bigger than my own (which is tiny, I assure you), wearing ill equipped shoes and fueled solely by adrenaline and cocktails, Emma and I deliriously began to brainstorm our would-be catering company name.

At one point I looked down at my hands, speckled in burns from sloppy reaches into the oven, splattering sauces, and skillet encounters, and looked over at Emma’s, boasting crimson memories of sharp edged aluminum hotel pans, soapy food processor blades, and wanton knives.

Though Slop and Gruel was a close second, we settled on Cuts and Burns Catering Co. She was cuts, I was burns. Though our catering company has never materialized beyond the Doe Bay music festival, the name has since stuck with me.

Food has a story beyond the pretty picture we see in books or blogs; it’s easy to glaze past the journey to focus on the final result. Rarely does it turn out exactly the way we want – sometimes it is a crushing disappointment, other times it’s a pleasant surprise – always food is an adventure. I wear my cuts and burns like battle scars, and revel in the imperfection, the occasional sloppiness, and unpredictability of life in the kitchen. For the love of cuts and burns is all about accepting the blood, sweat, and tears that can accompany making a meal; from the farmers who grow the food, to the hands who transport it, to the cooks who transform it, food is a lot of work, a labor of love, a duty of necessity.