About Randy

I have been a food lover for as long as I can remember. Growing up in NYC, I had the good fortune of being exposed to all kinds of great food in people's homes and restaurants at an early age. I am the kind of person who likes to talk about what we want to have for dinner while we are eating lunch. One of my life's goals is to expose as many people as possible to the pleasure of really good, nourishing food.

I don't believe that there is one type of diet that is right for everyone and I think that we as individuals need to be open to changing our own style of eating at various points in our lives as our needs and desires change. It's part of how we grow and change as people. Whether you are trying to figure out how to make a change or have been told that you need to make specific changes and want to learn how to implement them, I am here to help you.

The important things for me are that you eat food that you love AND that you learn to understand and respect what you individually need. I really like the idea of doing this without judgment. Food should be fun and it should give us pleasure. Food is there to be enjoyed and nourish us. Go ahead and try something, if it doesn't work, don't feel guilty, upset or angry. Just don't eat it again. A new opportunity to eat differently is only a meal away.

I have loved cooking since I was a child and I really consider it to be an important independent living skill as well as my creative outlet. When I went away to college and moved off campus, I had the first opportunity to actually plan my daily meals and cook for myself and others regularly. I continued cooking and playing around in the kitchen throughout law school and for years to follow. I even followed an almost fat free diet for a while after taking a spa vacation. I always loved the idea of making healthy food but never fully understood what went into healthy cooking and eating until I went to culinary school. I had been eating in a way that I thought was healthy based upon what was trendy at the time but it really wasn't working well for me.

In the late 90's, I got really sick for a few weeks and then I started to get better but wasn't really getting well. It was a turning point for me. My doctor suggested that I eliminate wheat and I did it for some time. It was the first time that I really saw how what we eat and don't eat impacts they way we feel. My body first went through a detox stage where I felt terrible but then after a few days, I felt clear and just amazing. I also stopped practicing law around that time and went on to Culinary School where I studied cooking and learned about food that supports our health.

In the Chef Training Program of the Natural Gourmet Institute in Manhattan, I not only learned things about cooking techniques but also things about food that I never considered. It was truly a revolutionizing education for me. It impacted me on so many levels including the way I cook, eat and raise my child. As part of that program, I taught cooking classes to kids in NYC and cooked the kitchen of the Golden Door Spa in California.

To further my education, I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I learned more about various dietary theories and the impact of food on our health. I received my board certification as a Holistic Health Counselor. For me, however, it comes back to the cooking and creating great food. That is what I love, it is what I want to share, teach and inspire people to do. I want people to know how to make great tasting food that supports their health.

I also think that's it's the missing link for many people. If you go to a doctor, nutritionist or other health practitioner who tells you what you should and shouldn't eat, you now have a guideline. It can be very eye opening and you may even understand why it would benefit you and want to do it. The problem is, you probably can't implement it and even if you can, it probably won't last because you haven't been taught how to do it easily and even more importantly, how to make food taste so good that you want to eat it regularly.

So here's my philosophy about cooking. Food should taste delicious and nourish us. It is possible for it to be fast and easy. Healthy food does not have to mean deprivation; it should taste great and be satisfying. I want my ingredients to be as close to the way nature created them as possible. I don't want food treated with chemicals or full of artificial ingredients. I don't want it stripped of its original nutritional value or to have the nutrition added back to it. I use organic ingredients most of the time and stick to ingredients that have nourished generations of people. I keep my house stocked with certain staples, condiments, spices and herbs and have my kitchen set up to work efficiently. Everyone can be a pretty good cook if they know how to do these things.

When we cook simply and with the highest quality products available, it can be easy to create great food that tastes delicious and supports our bodies as well. I know that this is true because I have been doing it for many years. Remember the old saying "you are what you eat". So many people have compromised their health by eating poor quality food and don't even realize it or know how to change it. I provide education so that you can make informed decisions about how you choose to feed yourself and your family.

I founded The Conscious Plate, to share my skills, experience and love of food with others. The Conscious Plate is dedicated to helping people eat, cook and love delicious, nourishing food prepared from minimally processed and unprocessed ingredients. Drawing on my experience and skills as a Food Lover, Chef, Board Certified Health Counselor and Parent I offer a variety of programs and services to teach people of varying ages how to prepare great tasting food quickly and easily and to understand the value of high quality ingredients so that people enjoy eating healthy food and you can sustain this way of eating without struggle.