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Leslie in Apppllo's organic Garden

How Leslie Cerier Became The Organic Gourmet

As a young girl, I loved to cook and eat.

And when my grandma Ethel was getting on in her years, and I was in my 20’s, I asked her to teach me how to make her strudel dough. She showed me and said, “you take some flour and water and it should look like this.” I said, “grandma how much flour and water?” She repeated in her yiddish accent, “you take some flour and water and it should look like this and if it doesn’t; you throw it away, and start over.”

She taught me to engage my senses. Trust my intuition. Now cooking from scratch felt like play, an exploration of seeing colors, tasting  textures of foods; smelling herbs and spices before adding them to a dish to ask myself does that lift my spirit? Enhance my mood? This new relationship with the ingredients led to networking with local farmers that grew my food.

And like Grandma, I can whip up a batch of pancakes and waffles without measuring just by looking at the texture of the batter.

A few years later, in the late 70s, I moved to Richmond, Kentucky. Fresh with my masters degree in Movement Sciences and Education, from Columbia University, I got a university teaching position teaching sports, creative dance and recreation. 

Then, at a new faculty meet and greet I met Jo, who coincidentally shared my birthday and we became instant friends. Jo brought me to my first health food store in Berea. There, I saw beans and whole grains for the first time. 

Being a college teacher, I had 2-3 hour breaks between teaching classes. This gave me time to drive back and forth to the health food store. Quiz the owners, “What is this bean and grain and how do you cook it.” 

There were no vegetarian, natural food cookbooks back then.

With excited curiosity, every week I would return to the store. Talk to the owner, and buy a new ingredient.

While others were keeping journals and writing down dreams or other insights, I kept a pad by my stove in the kitchen, and just wrote down lists of ingredients in the dish that I was cooking. Never thinking I would write a cookbook.

One thing led to another.

Jo, also introduced me to others interested in healthy eating and  brought me to a holistic health center in Lexington, Kentucky. There I studied nutrition with a holistic dentist. And then one day, I picked up a catalogue for summer programs at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

At Naropa Institute that summer, I studied arts in education, voice, improvisational theater and dance with Meredith Monk (composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer), while being introduced to meditation and Buddhism.

By chance, one day, I was walking around downtown Boulder, and met a couple, who told me about their macrobiotic diet and invited me to lunch. They made and served me vegan sushi. Yum! I am tasting sea vegetables for the first time.

After that summer, I returned to New York City to study creative dance, hang out with and photograph avant-garde theater and dance performances downtown while living uptown. 

When I heard about the macrobiotic dinner potlucks at Annemarie Colbin’s house, I went and became a regular. Networking with others eating and cooking macrobiotic foods, I learned a lot about cooking health supportive foods. And I joined their organic food buying club. Ate at the same macrobiotic restaurant, too.

I also heard about a book written by Tom Monte, Recalled by Life, about a hospital administrator who was cured of cancer by switching to a macrobiotic diet.

Also, when I returned from Boulder, Colorado, and visited my parents, my dad said that he had a numbness in his thumb. He thought maybe I would know what that meant. At the time I didn’t know that much about natural healing, but was very interested.

Turns out that the thumb is on the same Meridian (in Chinese Medicine) as the brain. 

In 1985, my dad had a brain tumor. I found Lisa, a macrobiotic chef who lived near my parents and understood how to cook healing foods for cancer patients. My mother hired her to cook for my dad. And while I was visiting, I learned by watching and talking to her how to cook healing foods for cancer. Unfortunately my dad died 11 days later.

While I was growing up, my parents didn’t guide my choices for occupation. However, indirectly, my dad’s unexpected death did influence me to become a food as medicine personal chef as well as a caterer. Now living in Western MA, I met Tom Monte and we started referring clients to each other. That led me to teach hands on cooking classes. Someone in class suggested a write a cookbook, which I did and have written and edited several. And I have become a recipe developer for individuals, natural and organic food companies.

Teaching cooking classes locally led me to travel and teach. Train chefs worldwide. Adapt an organic and natural lifestyle. 

Briefly give up photography cause being in the darkroom with toxic chemicals seemed inconsistent with sourcing, cooking and eating organic foods. And then after my father’s death, I inherited money to build, design and contract a passive solar natural home, where I still live, teach out of my organic vegetable and herb gardens, consult, dance and cook great meals.

That first cooking lesson from my grandma inspired me to teach my popular “Improvisational Cooking for Health and Vitality” at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA for 8 years as well as teaching in other personal growth centers like Omega Institute, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, among others. 

And now, for over 30 years, I am known as The Organic Gourmet.

Photos by Tracey Eller

“… GETTING HEALTHY, LESLIE CERIER IS YOUR GUIDE,” DR MARK HYMAN

Hey, if you are in the Amherst, MA area, and need a personal chef for that special occasion or need delicious food as medicine, please contact me.

And if you are looking for hands on organic farm to table cooking classes for your health and vitality, please contact me.

Want a Gourmet Getaway Retreat immersed in nature, that incorporates a nourishing environment with the art of self care, gourmet vegetarian, organic farm to table meals, and “loving kindness” hands on cooking classes.

Email Leslie: leslie@lesliecerier.com

SCHEDULE NOW:

Specializing in Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free and Plant Based Cooking for Health and Pleasure

 

 

 

Renowned Chef & Author
Classes~Recipes~Speaker
Gourmet Getaway Retreats

 

 

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