About Chef Barbi

This website has a lot of history and is over 18 years in the making.

Cancer became a motivation that pushed me to pursue my college education in culinary arts.

My Why...18 Years Later

This website has a lot of history behind it, and this latest story is over 18 years in the making. This story has been many things to me. It began as a goal I developed during my own fight with cancer. It became a motivation that pushed me to pursue my college education in culinary arts after cancer. It has been a labor of love into which I’ve poured my lifelong passion for cooking. My hope is that it can eventually be a source of inspiration and nourishment to those fighting cancer and their loved ones.

How My Battle with Cancer Started

In July 2003, my life took a turn familiar to many who have fought cancer. It began with noticing I tired too easily. I started walking at the local track and taking the stairs more often to get more exercise. I found I couldn’t even make an entire lap on the track without resting. Each day I tried to push a little further, but I only became more and more fatigued. Though I tried to stay busy, nothing seemed to improve the fatigue. One day I was too tired even to fold laundry. I moved the folding to the bed so I could sit down. As I folded, I watched the Oprah show. That day Oprah’s interview was about women’s health. As the show wrapped up, Oprah asked her guest to list the ten signs of breast cancer. I was surprised when she included dimpling in the skin as a sign. I had never heard that one, but it hit home because I had some dimpling. I went into the bathroom, took off my shirt, and put my hand on the dimple I had noticed under my arm and found a mass beneath it. In that position, I had never felt the lump during a breast exam. I called my husband and then we called the doctor. Thank you, Oprah, for asking the question because my fight with cancer started there.

Cancer's Affect on My Daily Life

I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer soon after. I am a positive person by nature, and I made it through the treatments and difficult times with the support of my family. As I was emerging from three years of treatment and recovery, I was asking myself: “what now?” I was a stay-at-home mom who loved to cook! Our home had an open door to all our kids’ friends and I loved creating recipes – many that I still make. When I was declared cancer free, my husband and I made a choice to live happy and healthy! We changed the way we ate, we joined a gym, and I decided to find a way to help those fighting cancer.

During my fight, eating well was one of the hardest things to do. Cancer treatments restrict one’s diet. Many foods are off-limits, others are too hard to stomach, and the process of preparing healthy and delicious food at home is much more difficult with the strain of having a family member sick. In my experience, there was far too little practical information to help me and my family eat well and stay healthy while I was fighting cancer. Simply following the rules for eating during treatment was a challenge. Seemingly easy rules I was given, like: “if you can’t peel the food, you can’t eat it!” were not so simple in practice! Even going to the store was a huge problem. Fatigue set in so easily, and low blood counts forced me to stay away from crowds. I looked for cookbooks and found there was nothing available at that time that could help me navigate my dietary restrictions with simple recipes that would help me and my family eat well and stay healthy.

Food As a Cure

I made it my goal to help others going through cancer treatment by writing a cookbook. I wanted to bring my love of cooking and my experiences with cancer treatment together to help others eat well by cooking easy recipes while making healthy food choices during their fight with cancer. The first step on the road to my goal was to go to culinary school to become a chef. I needed to learn and earn the right to be taken seriously to write the kind of book I wished had been available to me. I started culinary school in 2011 and graduated in 2014 with an Associate of Applied Science in Culinary Arts degree. I was voted “Best in Class” and graduated with honors. With my training complete, I set to work on recipes aimed to help people undergoing cancer treatment to eat real food with easy recipes.

I am still working on that goal! Recipes for my first cookbook are complete and I am searching for publication. Along the way, I have learned that a great idea may take time but its worth the effort.

How Social Media Helps

I have a not-for-profit foundation ready to provide support to the cancer fight and know that, in today’s world a social media presence is required. I have continued to help those in needs of special diets for health reasons, generated amazing photographs for the cookbook, and will continue working with others to get this cookbook into the hands of those who need it. Along the way, I have had an opportunity with Destination Imagination (DI) to create a series of recipes that honor and celebrate the places around the Globe where DI impacts our future. These recipes are shared in a series of videos that demonstrate how the dishes can be prepared by kids as part of their meetings and activities. Even better, the recipes are included for everyone to enjoy.

Keep in touch and check back on this website to follow our progress. Join my YouTube site and stay in touch on future videos. Join me on my quest to get my cookbook out where it can do some good.

In addition to helping those who are looking for ways to keep eating during cancer treatments, all proceeds will go directly back to helping in the fight against cancer. Thanks for reading.

African Cuisine Boli served with Sauteed Plantains