Hi, I’m Eileen. I teach vegan cooking in northern New Jersey and remotely, and can help you make healthful plant-based eating easy and delicious.

Whether you just want to increase the number of plant-based meals in your diet, or transition to a completely vegan diet, cooking classes are a fun way to learn new information and skills. And sometimes all you need is to speak with someone experienced who can help guide you as you get started.

You may know about the many benefits of plant-based eating, but moving from realizing something is a good idea to actually implementing new habits can be a challenge. Working with me can give you a jump-start. Private classes and coaching are customized to meet your preferences and goals.

I’ve been eating some form of vegetarian diet since 1992, and have remained vegan since 2006. I first learned about vegan cooking and nutrition out of necessity, since the world isn’t vegan and I love good food and health. Then I came to really enjoy my time in the kitchen, finding it relaxing and creative.

Part of the reason I began teaching vegan cooking is because I wanted to take classes and was disheartened there were no completely vegan classes available locally. Since I’d worked as a training and education director during my business and higher education careers, approaching schools about teaching felt natural for me. I began teaching at local colleges and cooking schools, as well as taking on private clients. At first, I was nervous about teaching cooking since I wasn’t a professionally trained chef, but as an educator, I know there’s nothing like teaching to inspire your own development and learning. It’s been gratifying to see people pleasantly surprised at how great vegan food tastes and become excited about changing their lifestyle.  And it also led me to do professional culinary training myself.  I completed Rouxbe Cooking School’s Plant-based Professional Certification Program, earning the top grade in the class.

My classes themselves are all about enjoying food, having fun, and learning useful skills. Yet for me, this work is about so much more. I strongly believe that changing the way we eat from animal-centric to plant-centric is becoming increasingly necessary as the world population climbs, and could be one of the simplest, yet most powerful ways to solve many global problems. My original reason for becoming veg*n was concern for animals — not wanting to participate in a system of violence and treating animals as things. I was willing to put in whatever extra effort was required to ensure my health on a vegan diet, but it turns out biology actually is on my side.  A whole foods, vegan diet can be one of the most nutritious, healthful diets, as well as be used to prevent, manage, and even reverse disease!  Add to that the many other concerns of animal-centric diets: healthcare costs, zoonotic diseases and global pandemics, environmental and climate issues, antibiotic resistance, sustaining a population of 7+ billion and human hunger, and going plant-based is ridiculously sensible!

Whatever your WHY is, we’ll work on the HOW.