Hey, Hello! I’m Laura :)
Chef and Entrepreneur
Le Cordon Bleu Paris Trained in the areas of
Boulangerie - Cuisine - French Patisserie
This is where Nourish Happy found it’s start…
A retelling of the life changing decisions in that inspired the creation of Nourish Happy. and all of the love I now see in that little blue dot.
Near the end of 2016, I was more lost that ever about my ever growing size.
At the time, I was morbidly obese.
Meaning that my weight was going to kill me. And as I found out after really terrible chest pains, that reality was going to be much sooner than I imagined. I resolved that I needed to lose weight and if it was the excess fat hanging around my hips that was the problem, then I needed to solve that problem. My me problem. My singular focus from that point forward was to loose weight. And I did.
I lost 140lbs in 13 months. Not with surgery, just with a rigorous diet. And it felt incredible. Actually reaching my crazy “you’re healthy now” goal number was beyond belief. What I didn’t know at the time was that in the process of “getting healthy”, I not only wrecked my metabolism, but also my mindset.
My diet became severe and obsessive.
My body showed me signals that it wasn’t healthy, but I didn’t listen. I was losing my hair, I lost my cycle, I was pinching my fat aggressively so that it would just go away, but I didn’t want to listen. It was the visible signs of a major vitamin deficiency that shook my resolve and screamed, “hey look Laura, you’re not healthy”. I was no longer morbidly obese, but now anorexic.
In 2019 I decided, with all the strength and courage I had, that I needed to prioritize a healthy lifestyle. Food didn’t have to be my enemy, but actual nourishment for both my body and mind. Thanks to my commitment to a healthy lifestyle, I am now the healthiest I have ever been. Both in mind and body.
I didn’t come to this resolve alone though, it was the boundless love of my parents that saved me. They encouraged, they supported, and they did everything they could to be there… even when I wasn’t listening.
We call ourselves ‘Team Blue Dot’. Inspired by Carl Sagan’s poem “The Pale Blue Dot”, written after the release of the first ever photo of earth taken 6 billion kilometers away in Feb 14th, 1990 by Voyager 1. Writing to us that all that we’ve ever known, all that we have ever loved and lost, all that we have is on a little blue dot suspended in a sunbeam.
To us, Carl Sagan's poem 'The Pale Blue Dot' is a reminder. This is the only home we have ever known and the only body and mind we have. That's why it's so important to prioritize our health and well-being, both for ourselves and for the world we live in. My team blue dot and I were so moved by these ideas, we actually all got matching blue dot tattoo’s! haha, a story for another time though.
This pale blue dot philosophy is at the heart of Nourish Happy.
Food doesn’t have to be complicated. Cooking doesn’t need to be a mystery. Living a healthy life doesn’t need to be messy.
With technique and confidence, we can do anything. And taking this philosophy further, by making healthy choices and treating ourselves with kindness, we can live fulfilling lives and make a positive impact on those around us.
Let's cherish our blue dot, hold on to it dearly, and commit to living a healthy, happy life.
We can do this.
I promise :)
Without knowing it though, my life’s work always revolved around food…
Just from different vantage points.
Food as Community
My university education, thank you.
2011 -2016, onwards
My honours bachelor's degree touched on a wide diversity of subjects, but food has always been its heart. Topics like ethical supply chains, political economy, and governance policies with an international focus (spanning from the global north to south).
Early on, I came across the idea that food, of all things, can be used as a powerful tool for empowerment. From producer to consumer. To me, that was an inspirational idea, one that fuelled my endless drive.
I published Canada's first report on supplier diversity, chaired student-led sustainability committee's, helped turn my university into a Fair Trade campus (one of the first of its kinds), and tried to understand the world around me so intently that I stumbled on earning a summa cum laude designation.
Many many things.
My community involvement and academic love for sustainability, food policy and the human connection made me fervent to make a difference. From the grower to the consumer, and everyone in between, we all depend on each other.
A beautiful interdependent food system.
Food as Nourishment
My nutrition studies, thank you.
2018 - onwards
Right as I entered my Masters, I experienced a health scare as a consequence of my morbid obesity. Zealous on facing my weight issue, tired of a life ruled by the scale, I decided to focus all of my efforts on 'getting healthy'.
The severity of my diet propelled me into an entirely new health scare. Unknowingly, I wrecked my metabolism and faced entirely new obstacles.
With this, I decided I needed to study the body. Qualify myself instead of depending on others who tell me they have all the answers, with the knowledge I was so desperate to find.
With that, I earned two accreditations in health and nutrition from Cornell University and George Brown College, plus a myriad of other certificates. Happily and luckily, my intense nutrition studies and lovely support system got me back to health. Forever thankful.
What I didn't expect was to fall in love with cooking.
Food as Joy
My culinary training, thank you.
2019 - onwards
It’s one thing to love studying food systems academically and learn what a nutrient is, but another beast entirely to know how to cook. In that regard, I was hopeless.
For all my life, food was either a vice to get by or a vitamin supplement. What I didn’t understand is how food can be a joy—a true pleasure. But after starring at my ready-to-go packed lunch, a meal I made every day that week, I decided that my relationship with food needed to change.
I needed to learn how to cook. With love. Definitively.
But, if I was going to do this, which I knew would already be a monumental effort, I didn’t want to go halfway. Only upgrading my canned tuna on spinach to canned tuna on leafy greens. I hungered for much more (haha, sorry the pun).
The ability to learn from the best and train with the best techniques was exactly what I hoped for. I fell in love with the culinary world and the intense heat of the kitchen.
Studies that lead me to the land of “bread and butter”: France :).
I studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, earning the coveted Grand Diplôme and studies in Boulangerie. I worked under the guidance of Sugar Champion of the World Chef Johanna Le Pape and at the prestigious Hôtel Plaza Athénée, one of the best hotels in the world. A hotel that embodies Parisian history. Most recently working as a chocolatier making fantastical creations in food form at The Grand Order of Divine Sweets in Toronto, ON, Canada.
Thank you for your awesomeness.
You are so wonderful and kind. Thank you for considering Nourish Happy. as a partner in your culinary journey.
Nourish Happy. to me is more than just a business, it’s a vocation and a mission. It is my absolute goal and objective for each lesson to be as meaningful, worthy, and valuable to you as it can be. Committed to being there for you every step of the way and hope that our programs will exceed your expectations as you embrace your path to healthy.