EATING HEALTHIER WITH PRIVATE VEGAN CHEF TAYLOR MAE DEAN
Taylor Mae Dean was raised on a diet of pork chops and steak and potatoes. But as the Solvang, California, native started meeting people who didn’t eat meat and learned more animal cruelty, she adopted a vegetarian diet at age 14. She tell us that as a teenager, she felt like it was a rebellious act. Her family members are ranchers.
But her culinary roots run deep. Her mother has been a waitress for three decades. One of her first jobs? Scooping tapioca while her mom worked. She didn’t have any desire to attend culinary school because she couldn’t find a plant-based program. But she found chef mentors.
Following stints working in California restaurants, she headed to Hawaii where she lived and worked on an organic farm for three years. She returned to the mainland to work at Lotus Garden Meditation Center in Sacramento. She says she was tired of living in Sacramento and at a low point on her life when she stumbled upon a YouTube video that was about how to become a personal chef.
“I thought, this is great,” she says. “I have all these years of experience cooking and learning about organic farming, which complemented my skills as a chef to know what’s good, what’s
in season and where it comes from.”
She made a few phone calls to a few personal chefs, and found one who would mentor her. Eight months later, she launched her business. A friend of Taylor’s invited her to work as a cook at her Airbnb in Sedona. From there, she worked for a family for eight months and took on a marketing gig. She found a job cooking for a retreat on Craigslist. After creating menus for the retreat was a smashing success, she says “it propelled her forward” in her venture.
For the past three years, she’s worked as a private vegan chef in Sedona. The menus she creates are exclusively plant-based. She doesn’t cook any meat, fish or eggs.
“My mission is to really give people a good sense that vegan food can be really delicious. I didn’t feel like that was being really represented,” says Taylor. For her, learning how to cook vegan food is about learning how to make great dishes with different ingredients. “It’s just different ingredients. You have to treat them a different way,” says Taylor. “The best dishes are dishes where the ingredients are just treated properly. They’re not overcooked and not over seasoned, and they’re seasoned perfectly just cooked. And that’s where all the technique comes in.”
She usually starts the meal with a big green salad topped with sprouts, beets and whatever produce is in season. Some examples of what else she may create is a light, gluten-free lasagna made out of creamy brown rice noodles and topped with mushrooms, onions, cashew cheese and a made-from scratch marinara. For dessert, she’ll often serve a salted caramel tart made with dates and an oat crust with coconut that’s topped with chocolate ganache.
The majority of her clients are entrepreneurs who bring their clients to Sedona for five days. Taylor then curates all their meals, every day, three times a day. She handles everything from cooking
to cleanup. She says one of the common misconceptions about vegan food is that it’s unbalanced or lacking protein. But she’s here to let people know that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“When you compose a dish as a chef, you want to make sure foremost, if you’re being a responsible chef, that the meal is balanced nutritionally. Not only is it balanced, but it is also tasty. But I think it’s more important to make a balanced dish, flavor-wise and nutritionally-wise,” says Taylor. “Food is just pure nourishment. And it should just assist people in their life, and make them feel good.”
Even though she herself is vegan, she’s not here to make people feel bad about what they eat. “When people are really excited about the food. And they’re like, well, if it was this good, I could eat like this every day. I ask: ‘What can I do to help you succeed in that?,” says Taylor. “The experience I’m trying to provide is really more of a heart-centered one.”
For more information, visit cookingwithlove-personalchef.com.
IMPROVING YOUR PHYSICAL FITNESS WITH OWNER OF BE FIT FIT MAGDALENA ROMANSKA
Magdalena Romanska of Be Fit Fit physical fitness
It’s safe to say that Magdalena Romanska has literally come a long way thanks to physical fitness. The owner and the sole trainer at the Be Fit Fit gym at the Bell Rock Plaza had never exercised until she was 18. The lack of physical activity combined with a poor diet led to her being overweight. She then left Poland where her family was living for Italy with her then husband. The couple then moved to Berkeley, California and Sweden before landing in Montreal.
“Wherever I was going, I was adamant to either have a swimming pool or a gym,” she says. It took her a little over a year to reach her weight loss goal. Her own personal struggles help her work with her clients.
“I can relate to people who have any kind of fitness goals and issues, but specifically weight loss,” she says. “When they see that you can relate, you’ve been there, you’ve done that, and you are at that point where you didn’t really like your body and yourself, and you are where you are now they open easier.”
While in Montreal, she was running a linguistic business and had no time to purse her dream of opening a fitness business. But when she moved from Montreal to Sedona nine years ago, she scaled back her hours with the linguistic business. And in 2011, she took a trainer course and decided to specialize in fitness for senior citizens.
She opened her gym in 2012. In the back room, she has all the equipment you’d expect to find at a big gym in addition to a Pilates reformer and CoreAlign machine. In the front room, she has a space where she interviews all her clients. The interview process is key. Her clients fill out forms where they discuss their prior injuries, their health backgrounds and fitness goals. Their goals can include endurance, weight loss, weight gain, muscle increase, balance and flexibility. Some of them want to hike the Grand Canyon or finish a half marathon. Some of her clients are in their 70 and 80s. Her oldest client is 94. She’ll often talk to her customer’s doctors to ensure she doesn’t hurt them. She works with individuals and couples or groups of two and develops programs individually tailored to meet her customer’s needs.
She’s had clients since the beginning who have never taken the same class. And this is by design.
“That’s really important because those muscles get to my gym, and they don’t know what to expect and that’s the way to mobilize them and activate them and then burn more calories because they
are surprised with what we are doing every single time,” she says. If they have memberships at other places, she can tell her clients what do at their respective gyms. After that first session, she’ll typically text her clients to ask them how they’re doing. One of the keys to getting her clients results? Finding exercises they prefer.
“You want to focus on what you really enjoy,” says Magdalena. “If somebody hates the treadmill, they should never do the treadmill. If they prefer the bike, they should to the bike.”
Although she’s not a nutritionist, she will offer her clients some nutritional guidance. And her approach to nutrition follows the same guidelines as her exercise advice: It should be something you can stick with.
“Diet is deprivation, and nutrition is building,” she says. Beyond owning a gym, she also works as a realtor at Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty and runs ultra-marathons and participates in Ironman competitions. How does she find the time? She breaks down what she has to do in chunks – another strategy she uses with her clients.
“I love hiking and running,” she says. “So in between my clients and for any of my businesses, I would run. I would hike.” From never exercising until she turned 18 to running 173-miles around Lake Tahoe, her life has been transformed by physical fitness.
“You start being fit, and you’re enjoying your life and everyday activities more and everything comes easier,” she says.
For more information, visit befitfit.biz.
EXERCISING IN SEDONA’S NATURAL BEAUTY AT ENCHANTMENT RESORT’S NEW TRAIL HOUSE
New Trail House at the Enchantment Resort
Trail House Interior
Many flock to Red Rock Country to embark on a path to wellness. And one of Sedona’s top resorts has broken ground on a new activity center available exclusively for guests of Enchantment Resort and Mii amo spa that champions outdoor recreation. Slated to debut in the summer of 2020, Trail House at Enchantment Resort will offer a retail space for professional-grade equipment and accessories, technical gear, high-end outdoor apparel, a shop for bike rentals, fitting, assembly and purchase and an area dedicated to educating guests about Sedona’s vast network of trails.
Guides will teach guests about the terrain, elevations and skill levels required to tackle trails. Trail House also will welcome classrooms from West Sedona Elementary School for annual field trips to coincide with their geography, flora and fauna and physics curriculums.
“This is a one-of-a-kind endeavor in the luxury resort market,” says Stan Kantowski, managing director of Enchantment Resort. “The combination of educational elements, genuine service, a robust bike shop and high-end retail will elevate our guest experience. Our goal is to provide guests with the ultimate outdoor adventure experience, challenging them to explore out, create cherished memories and meaningful connection with Boynton Canyon.”
For more information, visit enchantmentresort.com/trailhouse.
TIPS ON STAYING HEALTHY
Taylor Mae Dean, a private vegan chef, shares her cooking tips
“Start by trying to follow a recipe. I always refer to other food bloggers for vegan recipes to help get new ideas. Following a recipe can also help to hone your skills in the kitchen and figure out what flavors work together.
Prepare what veggies are in season. If you don’t know, go to your local farmers market and start shopping. Buying produce will force you to have to try and prepare dishes from the ingredients
you purchase. This is a great way to support the local organic farms, your local economy and stay healthy.
Make it fun. Invite friends over for to share a meal, or try out a recipe with your partner, friend or children. Cooking and food helps builds relationship, while also making cooking seem less like a chore. Cooking at home instead of eating out, is healthier, and can also help you save more money. By making it fun you can make food a more therapeutic and enjoyable experience.”
Magdalena Romanska, owner of Be Fit Fit, wants you to make time for fitness and reward yourself
“It’s so very important to reward yourself after each mini step when you are successful.” She gave us the example that if you walk for 30 minutes outside twice a week, treat yourself to whatever makes you feel good.
“Make time. Put it on the agenda. You have an appointment with yourself to take care of yourself. Your body’s going to thank you for that.”
Stan Kantowski, managing director of Enchantment Resort, recommends you head outdoors
“The great thing about hiking and mountain biking is that you regulate personal pace and select the trails that work best. Unlike other sports that are measured by a clock or a person’s physical abilities, outdoor recreation is open for all ages and abilities.”
