My goal is simple.
I want to bring the energy of JOY to cooking and eating to anyone with food restrictions.
ALL ABOUT ME
From a young age I had a love of eating and preparing delicious food.
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In 1995 I received a degree in Culinary Arts from Newbury College. I initially worked at a bakery and quickly moved on to Olive's restaurant where I was the assistant pastry chef. After becoming a Mom, I started working as a personal chef for a number of clients. During that time, I was able to be more creative in what I prepared for meals.
In the last two years, I began having health problems and decided I needed to look for alternative ways to help myself feel better, which included what I was eating. I radically changed my diet in an effort to help me understand what foods were best for me. Some restrictions were tough, and I felt deprived when I first started, but then I realized I could apply my culinary knowledge and expertise to work, finding recipes and altering them to work with my restrictions.
This was a game changer. Instead of feeling deprived, I felt inspired. Now I want to help other people find dishes that they can make and enjoy while accommodating their unique food restrictions.
We cannot recommend The Mentor Chef's cooking and recipes enough! When we had our infant, our time to think of new and healthy food to cook was very limited and we found ourselves resorting to expensive and unhealthy takeout food often. Maria was able to provide a couple of extremely tasty and nutritious meals that also stayed fresh for a few days so we were eating leftovers for the entire week. It was so helpful during a period when our time was limited and also gave us great ideas for future meals. We highly recommend!
Sam and Audrey Evans
Maria is not only an exceptional chef, but also has a very unique skill set. Her ability to harness creativitiy, detail and care to her clients allows her to make enjoyable dishes from even the most limited list of ingredients. Nutrition is the foundation to health, and Maria paves the way for everyone to be able to enjoy nutritious foods. Her services should be a staple for all who are using food as a foundation for health.
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Founder of Elevate Spa,
Grace Talamante
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Maria is incredibly talented, professional, caring and knowledgeable. She seeks to understand the needs of her clients and provides delicious recipes to support those needs. I am so grateful I've been able to work with Maria!