Chef Val's Bio
1985 Manager at O'Conner's Deli in Brighton
1990 Assistant manager at Vie de France in Novi
1994 - Apprentice at macrobiotic cooking school, Lenore's Natural Cuisine
in Farmington Hills.
1996 - Starts offering personal chef services, specializing in vegan,
macrobiotic dishes.
1997 Starts teaching vegan, macrobiotic cooking classes and
starts her business, Macro Val
2001 Writes and self publishes her first cookbook, Perceptions
in Healthy Cooking and begins offering Personal One on One Lifestyle
counseling sessions
2012 Hosts her own internet radio show, Healthy Cooking
with Macro Val and is a regular writer for local Michigan magazines,
also creates her You Tube Channel featuring instructional videos about
healthy cooking
2014 Becomes licensed by the State of Michigan to package and
sell her vegan food in local stores, and is ServeSafe Certified
2015 Writes and self publishes her second cookbook, Healthy
and Delicious Cooking - Spring Season
2016 Changes format of her internet radio show to become, REAL
FOOD with Chef Val
2017 Celebrates her 20th anniversary in business by releasing
a new version of her first cookbook, Perceptions in Healthy Cooking,
Revised Edition
2018 Creates, Macro Val LLC, and is currently teaching
cooking classes, offering counseling in person or over the phone, cooks
her Food To Go out of a commercial kitchen and sells to stores,
and hosts her bi-monthly internet radio show, REAL FOOD with Chef
Val
A note
from Val,
I have
always enjoyed cooking since I can remember. I believe it all started
in the kitchen with my Mom when I was young. Mom showed me all the basics
of how to prepare food, from baking to boiling to steaming. I caught
on fast, and was good at ad-libbing or substituting ingredients. It
was also my job to clean up the kitchen after dinner, which I did not
enjoy.
It was
no surprise that my first job was at a deli that made pizza, subs and
salads. Through the five years I worked and managed the deli, I was
everything from cashier to sub maker to pizza chef. I can honestly say
I loved my job at the deli, but it was at this time that I started to
have some health problems such as allergies and my prolonged battle
with eczema. From the deli I went on to be an assistant manager of a
restaurant and from there, I had a couple of house cleaning businesses.
Then, in
1993, I read a book that changed my life. It was Confessions of a
Kamikaze Cowboy by Dirk Benedict. This down-to-earth book tells
the journey Mr. Benedict took to heal his body of prostate cancer through
changing his diet. This book introduced me to macrobiotics and the principles
of energy. I highly recommend this book, it is not only about food but
also about spirituality and letting go.
I then
went to work at a macrobiotic cooking school, learning more about food
and how to prepare it properly. I rediscovered my passion for food as
I experimented with the all the new ingredients I was learning about.
I started teaching my own cooking classes in 1997. I had heard from
many people that healthy food does not taste good, so I set out to create
dishes that were tasty as well as good for you. My students can confirm
that I succeeded, and I also made the recipes easy to prepare so you
don't have to be concerned about prep time.
In 1994,
I began eating whole grain foods and I am happy to report I have never
felt better. My allergies are gone along with my eczema, and my energy
is calmer. Remember, food is one of the most important parts of our
existence. It makes up the blood that flows through every organ in our
bodies. You have a choice which foods you put in your mouth. So please,
make educated, smart decisions when it comes to food.
God Bless,
Val