Hello!

Welcome to my culinary world! 

I’m the author of around a dozen cookbooks, and an educator, edible gardener, and formerly, a personal chef for William Shatner, Patrick Dempsey, and Joshua Bell, plus I created culinary offerings for live events for Sharon Salzberg and Ruby Warrington.

I used to grow food for clients in Malibu with a minimum of 2 acres - that’s how I pruned Barbra Streisand’s peach trees, and looked after Odwalla Juice’s gardens in Topanga. Lots of time outdoors in the sunshine getting up close and personal with ingredients, soil, and ecology, learning through experience what makes a good farmer, and how organic techniques impact plants, animals, humans, and the planet.

My first cookbook was Organic Cookbook, and I continued to write about healthy and organic food. Subsequent books were published by HarperCollins and Rizzoli, including a book commissioned by Whole Foods Market, Fresh & Wild: A Real Food Adventure. I also wrote a report for Reuters about the global healthy food market which included the functional foods industry, gentically-modified foods, and processed foods that are sold as convenient healthy foods (but probably aren’t.)

My biggest book so far was a ghost-write for The Ranch at Live Oak, Malibu an upscale retreat center where I worked for three years. The book was featured on Good Morning America, plus had reviews in Vogue, The New York Times etc. A big, beautiful Rizzoli book in 2016. Since then, I’ve had two more books published, about sugar-free cakes, and another baking book, with a twist, both of which also garnered a lot of press.

I’ve written for The Los Angeles Times, Food Illustrated, Observer Food Monthly (UK), and numerous print publications and zines, blogs, interviews and podcasts.

I’ve led workshops, private classes, and given a TEDx Talk about how taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound combine to create the integrated pleasure of eating.

I was a consultant for Pret a Manger, Marks & Spencer, and McDonalds back in the 90s, supporting these behemoth corporations to pivot towards organic ingredients and more sustainable packaging options. While that was very much frowned upon during the 90s, I’m proud of this contribution to mainstream corporate food culture - these corporations were impacted for the better, and we see the ripples of these ideas spread way beyond, because of their size and commercial impact, and the oversized weight of their impact on agriculture. I think it was the cright way to navigate the times back in the 1990s, although I don’t have the patience for this kind of ‘modifying from the inside’ strategy these days. It felt right back then, utilizing their power to create change way beyond our capabilities as change-makers before technology changed everything.

Having lived in London, Los Angeles, and NYC, these cities all inspire me - healthy plant-based cuisine from California, creativity from New York, and comfort from London - paired with flavors and techniques from my own cultural heritage.

I’m curious about food that’s actively good for you - simple, and beautiful. Heirloom - vibrant with modernity, yet paradoxically, with deep ancient roots. That’s why ancient ingredients and techniques continue to inform my explorations into healthy eating in this current chapter, and why I look forward to sharing my next book. Deep, local, insights and intensive research and development that this entails, and therefore the gap between my last book, and the next.

Thanks for reading my back catalog in the meantime!

Warmly, 

Ysanne Spevack