Julie Shanson, Founder

In elementary school in central Maine, I spent entire Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at the side of my Austrian neighbor making dinner with fruits from the trees and vegetables from the garden.  In college I took my junior year in Paris for the city living, the language, and the food.  I earned my bachelor’s degree in English at Cornell in 1992 and drove west to Silicon Valley to work first at Stanford and then various tech companies in roles where the learning and teaching of technology tools was part of my job.

My passion for food remained constant as my body gained and lost weight with demanding jobs, two pregnancies and childrearing.  At my heaviest, I was over 200 lbs. But the weight was weighing me down. In addition to feeling and looking better, I wanted to have more energy to play with my husband and my kids.  Through Stanford University I joined a program about healthy weight control for families. It was life changing.

It would have been wonderful to have this knowledge when I was battling with my weight in junior high, high school and college. Or when I was a sleep deprived new mom desperately seeking more energy to manage a toddler and a baby. Wanting to share these principles and my love of fresh produce with others led me to begin teaching classes about cooking and eating in 2013.  In 2015 I became certified in plant based cooking through the Rouxbe Culinary Rx program. I believe that we all need to know some basics about cooking and nutrition to lead long healthy lives.  Want to read more? Check out this Palo Alto Weekly article.

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