034: Advocating for the Plate— A Palate’s Plea with Nina Curtis
Essential Ingredients Podcast
English - August 29, 2023 13:00 - 47 minutes - 38.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 127 ratingsNutrition Health & Fitness Business Entrepreneurship Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
“I'm an artist on the plate. I'm an advocate on the plate. I get to paint the plate with all these beautiful colors of the food I choose to cook.” —Nina Curtis
Advocating for the plate is a multi-faceted concept at the intersection of aesthetics, quality, and social responsibility. It is an essential part of promoting our health and shaping the well-being of our earthly home and everything in it.
But this movement is not as complicated as it may seem. In fact, the epitome of good health often lies in the simplicity of the food we choose to serve on our plates. By taking advantage of the natural wealth that whole foods have to offer, we can reconnect with our food’s roots and break away from the chains of food politics that denied us our basic right to healthy food.
This week, Justine interviews Nina Curtis, the Director and Executive Chef of Plant’ish, a food company that offers nutritious plant-forward meals that are quick and easy to prepare. Join the conversation as Justine and Nina help us rekindle a love for homemade, nourishing meals and embrace the plant-forward approach while celebrating traditional food practices.
Meet Nina:
Nina Curtis is recognized as a thought leader and trailblazer in the plant-based culinary movement. Chef Curtis presents lectures and demonstrations on health, nutrition, and whole plant-based foods around the country. She has developed wellness training programs, has set up and led kitchen operations, and has worked closely in conjunction with culinary master gardeners to develop seasonal and gorgeous seed-to-table recipes that are essential to having an exceptional plant strong culinary experience. Chef Curtis has appeared on national TV and she is a guest speaker at several national culinary conferences.
As the former Director and Executive Chef for Adventist Health, Roseville Campus Vitaliz Café, and Culinary Arts, Chef Curtis was at the helm of this dynamic culinary division. From inception, launch, and execution, Chef Curtis recruited, trained, and led both the front and back of the house team, providing delicious and nutritious plant-based meals for associates and guests at the Adventist Health Corporate offices. She also led whole plant-based food educational programs and presented demonstrations to encourage associates and guests to incorporate more whole foods in their diets outside of work, receiving rave reviews.
During her time as Executive Chef at The Ranch at Live Oak, Malibu, the acclaimed seven-day fitness and wellness bootcamp, and the Chief Nutrition Officer for the Ranch Daily a meal subscription service in Southern California, Chef Curtis kept her finger on the pulse of the wellness and plant-based lifestyle trends and incorporated the best of best practices and cuisines for guests to have a full wellness experience.
Chef Curtis has been an avid proponent of a plant-based lifestyle for over twenty years. Her food and beverage background includes working with the Marriott Group, Hilton Hotels, Baxters, Manhattan Beach, the El Caballo, Oakland, Pure Food and Wine in New York, and the Springs Restaurant and Wine Bar, Los Angeles.
An MBA graduate of Pepperdine University, Curtis was also trained at Living Light Culinary Institute, Trinity School of Natural Health, the Natural Gourmet Culinary Institute and she holds a Plant-Based Nutrition certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies, Cornell.
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