Linda K. got a very early start on the culinary arts path in the fifth grade, when she and her brother began helping their hardworking mom cook the family suppers. She originally adopted a plant-based lifestyle 30 years ago, for her asthmatic daughter’s health. She credits the diet with saving her daughter and herself from respiratory symptoms and medication—and her husband, Ed, from heart disease.
For 25 years, Linda K’s been working in totally plant-based kitchens, where she’s been a cook, a trainer, and a manager. Most recently she became a student when she attended an intensive summer training course at the Natural Gourmet Cookery school in New York. She was Food Service Director for the Oklahoma Academy boarding school before she co-coordinated the set-up of Lifestyle of America’s Windcrest Restaurant kitchen. In 1996, Linda K became a sous chef, then managed the restaurant, and later assumed responsibility for directing the LCA Culinary Arts Program, where she’s a popular teacher and non-stop inventor of new recipes.
Linda K’s specialty is converting “traditional” (read: high-fat, high-calorie, high-glycemic recipes laced with animal products) into more healthful, plant-based alternatives. Linda K gets genuinely excited by the potential power of a plant-based lifestyle for diabetes, and always manages to incorporate the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of healthy eating in all her interactions with her students. She’s especially proud to teach people quick and easy recipes that taste great and restore health. Linda’s also an accomplished artist and craftsman, but her greatest joy in life is being a grandma.