Marti Wolfson

Marti has been a passionate educator in the Culinary Nutrition field for over 15 years. She brings a unique set of skills as a health-supportive chef, food and nutritional therapy consultant, and practitioner of mind-body therapies. With an extensive background in cooking, nutrition, movement, and mind-body medicine, Marti is inspirational in helping people gain a better connection to their health.

Abbie Gellman, MS RD CDN

Chef Abbie Gellman, MS RD CDN is a spokesperson, recipe and product developer, educator, and nationally recognized culinary nutrition expert. She creates, produces, and hosts cooking and nutrition videos and works with a wide variety of food companies/brands, commodity boards, foodservice operators, health professionals, and private clients.

Richard LaMarita

Richard LaMarita has had a diverse culinary career. He has been a chef-instructor in the world-renowned plant-based program at the Natural Gourmet Institute, NYC, for 25 years. He now teaches in the Health Supportive Culinary Arts Program at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.

​

Stefanie Sacks, MS, CNS, CDN

Stefanie Sacks, MS, CNS, CDN is a Culinary Nutritionist, educator, speaker, consultant, and authority on eating to prevent and manage illness. For over two decades, she has helped transform the way people eat using hands-on experiences to inspire, educate and offer practical tools for food lifestyle change.

​

Marina Balakrishnan

Marina’s gourmet sensibilities are rooted in her childhood in Malabar, perfected by her technical training. After her training in New York, she returned to her roots, spending time in her home state Kerala where she deepened her knowledge of Ayurveda. She now specializes in Keralite cuisine and seeks to popularize many of its indigenous dishes. 

Dr. Annie Fenn

Dr. Annie Fenn is a physician, chef, and founder of the Brain Health Kitchen, the only culinary school of its kind focused specifically on fending off age-related cognitive decline. She teaches the Brain Health Kitchen method of cooking throughout the U.S. and abroad, with an emphasis on neuroprotective ingredients and brain-friendly cooking techniques. Her mission is to help you take care of your brain while still eating delicious food. 

Mary Opfer

Mary is a Culinary Nutritionist/Dietitian, and clinical professor of culinary nutrition in the Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics Program at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. She uses the food as medicine approach in her private practice and has a passion for helping her community achieve better health through healthy cooking. Mary has created a number of community based meal planning and preparation classes as well as contributing recipes for several cookbooks and owned and operated a restaurant for 10 years.

Renana Shvil

Renana has been a cooking instructor for the past 10 years. She has also been a preschool teacher in a Montessori school in Brooklyn and in a preschool in Westchester. She brings with her the understanding of child development and the creative methods of educating young children. Food education has become a passion and mission for Renana. In her lessons, Renana focuses on healthy and delicious ingredients, and familiarizes students with simple and natural ways of satisfying their appetite. Renana offers private or group lessons at home, after school programs, workshops for parents and teachers as well as birthday parties to children of all ages. In addition, she develops cooking curricula for schools and camps. In Spring of 2016 Renana opened the gates to her own kitchen at Fiddleheads Cooking Studio in Westchester, NY and is happy to share the space and teach children and their parents how to get more involved with what we eat.