 My name is Denise Rutledge. My mother let me start cooking when I was five years old. That was the beginning of my love for foods and nutrition. In the 40+ years since then, I have lived in five different cultures, learning to love and cook multi-ethnic vegetarian meals. The style of meals goes from comfortable American down-home cuisine to Asian, Hawaiian, West Indian, South American, Mexican, and even African. I have my B.S. in Home Economics with a solid understanding of nutrition and food science. I have taught vegetarian cooking schools and junior high home economics over the years. My recipes have been well received in four countries. In November of 2004 I took a training course with the Coronary Health Improvement Project, CHIP. This program is designed to reverse many of today's killer diseases--coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Having personally experienced the health improvements from following this program, I have designed my service to be plant-based. I must admit that I love cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese. It has taken a lot of experimenting to come up with recipes that replace these products effectively. I believe that I have become quite successful. I make most of my own replacements, so you can be assured that only the best quality ingredients go into my products. There are no trans fats and very little refined oil in my cooking. To hone my culinary skills, I completed personal chef training with the Culinary Business Academy in August, 2006. My food handling certificate is current. I am licensed in Washington and Portland, Oregon. I am excited to be pulling all my experience together into providing products and services that will bless you with better health and better life. I look forward to providing the healthiest personal chef service in the Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA area. |