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ABOUT CHEF MARIE
I, Chef Marie, am a native of Paris, France where I grew up around gourmet foods and wines. My interest in health started at a very young age, being a National Table Tennis Champion, I quickly realized the importance of healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition in order to perform her best.
I hold a Culinary Arts Degree, including Food and Beverage Management from Century Business College. I am a licensed Bartender and Wine Connoisseur. I enjoy attending culinary educational programs and obtained many related certifications such as Certified Professional Food Manager, World Pastry Forum Certificate, and Wilton School Certified Cake Decorator Level I, II, and III.
I pursued my health education by attending various certification courses such as Train The Trainer, Life Coach and NLP, Fitness Nutritionist Coach, and Sports & Fitness Nutritionist Specialist. I am a Certified Trainer, Instructor, and Coach. Though my knowledge may apply to most sports and fitness programs, I emphasize my teaching towards my favorite sports Tennis (USPTR-Dennis Van Den Meer University Certified), Table Tennis (USTTA-FFTT Certified), and Soccer (CYSA Certified). As a High School, State, and National Coach; many athletes in France and United States have benefited from my coaching, training, and world competition experiences. During my years of competition and coaching, I also realized how anxiety, stress, and various emotions played an important role in one's health and performance. Consequently, I learned various meditation techniques and became a Certified Sports Hypnotist which I both utilize to help my clients visualizing what they want, change behaviors, and relief emotional stress. I, myself, a regular practitioner of Zen meditations.
For years, I worked with renowned chefs throughout the culinary industry. I ran successful kitchen restaurants while training restaurant staff to increase sales and offer better services to clientele. In 2000, I started my own Personal Chef Services and Healthy Cooking School. I worked in school cafeteria to understand children diet in American schools. Collaborating on various projects with well-known doctors, registered dietitians, scientists, nutritionists, and fitness gurus; I researched and studied many health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and food allergies. Considering the increase of weight and health issues and, in order to accommodate a growing demand from my clients, I created my own personal healthy recipes. In 2005, I released my own Personal Fitness Chef Program, which is marketed by Spencer Institute; in order to promote healthy eating and cooking techniques. In 2006, with my good friend, Dr. Apostolos Pappas, a world known biochemist and food scientist, we wrote our first scientifically based diet book The Saint-Tropez Diet. Educating the public on the role and influence of foods on our health, giving proper nutrition guidelines, and teaching healthy eating while emphasizing healthy cooking techniques were our primary goals. In 2007, I released "To Your Health - The Health Benefits of Pairing Food & Wine" CD/DVD. Later that year, I joined Dr. Stuart Fisher and his team to work on a unique project "The Park Avenue Diet". In 2008, I joined France Organics to help promote French Organic Products at the NASFT show and in the United States. I contributed to James Villepigue and Hugo Rivera books, The Body Sculpting Bible Express for Women and The Body Sculpting Bible Express for Men. I, then, created my own healthy cookbook series called Cooking Well. So far released under this series: Mediterranean Diet, Multiple Sclerosis, Osteoporosis, Wheat Allergies, Garlic, Fibromyalgia, Thyroid Health, and Prostate Health. More recently, I have been working with Premium Gold Flax Corporation helping them developing healthy products and recipes.
As a leader in the health industry, I concentrate now on educating people on healthy lifestyle. It is my true passion for life that lead me to the health industry and I find much happiness in helping others. Whenever possible, I volunteer my time with local youth programs. I enjoy giving lectures on my true passions. Here are a few examples of my past speaker presentations: "7 Secrets to Healthy Meals", "Quick Healthy Meals", "Changing Your Eating habits One Step At a Time", "The Pleasures of The Table" and "How To Create A Romantic Dinner At Home". I offered healthy cooking classes "in home" and through local organizations such as CareMore Medical Health Care Group, The Diabetic Association, The Heart Association, OC Chef and Child Foundation, OC Head Start, My Kid Healthy, Cooking Up Change, and many more...
I appeared on television, radio shows, and received excellent reviews from a variety of magazines such as OC Metro, Westways Magazine, Uptown San Diego District Magazine, OC Flair, North Orange County Magazine, New York Post, New York Daily News, Life & Style Magazine, Vogue, Fox News, Women's Health, and Health News Digest. I am often consulted by health/fitness publications, magazines, hospitals, health insurance, and gladly contributed to some of them.
I am a Board Member of the ACF-OECA, who recently won The Little Oscar 2010 ACF Chef and Child Foundation Award. I am the Emeritus iiChef CEO France since 2010, a world-organization which has for mission to promote healthy eating, particularly for children throughout the world. In 2011, was named Co-Chair of the Judging Committee for the first ever "Cooking Up Change" Competition that will happen in March 2012 in Orange County, Southern California.
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