Vanessa went on to receive a degree in Food Engineering from the University of Campinas, a Masters in Holistic Nutrition from Hawthorn University, and work in the food industry in the Czech Republic and Greece until settling in San Francisco where she gained experience in many steps of food production, ranging from food gardening to teaching world culinary skills. From these experiences, she developed the core beliefs that food bridges us as individuals to community and environment, that it is a gift and medicine, and that it can be a rooting element to our health. These beliefs and the pure joy she experiences cooking are her motivation to share her work with students, friends and family.

Her grandmother’s humble southern biscuits inspired a decades-long culinary journey working at critically acclaimed restaurants from coast to coast, eventually landing her in Oakland where she often finds herself shepherding tweens and teens on their culinary journeys — from sustainable foraging to whole animal butchery!