BIO

Hello! My name is Byrd Evans. I was born and raised in Louisiana and fell in love with food extremely early in life. At the age of 4, I was already standing on top of kitchen stools making roux for gumbo. I graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 2011, and went on to complete an externship in Paris, France working in 3 different Michelin Starred restaurants including Le Chateaubriand (ranked #11 in the world at the time by San Pellegrino’s 50 Best). After working in the gourmet food world for some time, I realized that I wasn’t being fulfilled in my work unless there was a direct connection between myself and the diner. I became incredibly interested in and passionate about the healing powers of food as medicine, and in 2014 I graduated as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor & Diet and Lifestyle Coach from the Mount Madonna Institute in Watsonville, CA.

Since then, I have lived in Mexico, Texas, California & Japan working in catering, in restaurant kitchens, as a health supportive private chef and Ayurvedic health counselor, teaching cooking classes, and learning from indigenous grandmothers. I am currently studying psychology at CIIS so that I may go deeper with my clients into the mental and emotional realms of their health to address the root causes of their physical conditions. I am specifically most interested in the mind/gut connection.

I am capable and comfortable accommodating any style of cooking, dietary restriction or need, and am proficient in gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, raw, ayurvedic, paleo & autoimmune diets.