COOKING DEMONSTRATIONS
At 59, Ellen Jaffe Jones is the author of Eat Vegan on $4 a Day. 
She’s also "The Veg Coach," and "The Broccoli Rep" because, as she says, "Who else IS the broccoli rep?"
She is a certified personal trainer (AFAA), certified running coach (RRCA), routinely places in 5K races for her age group in the Tampa area, won 5 gold medals in local Senior Games and her 100-meter sprint times rival NCAA girls’ track team times. She was the 5th oldest female to finish the 2010 Palm Beaches Marathon, which was her 1st marathon.
Ellen was a popular TV investigative reporter/anchor for 18 years in St. Louis and Miami. She won 2 Emmys, 4 more nominations, and The National Press Club 1st Place Award for Consumer Reporting. During 6 stay-at-home years, she was a La Leche League leader and Associate Coordinator of Leader Accreditation for Missouri. She became known as "Earth Mother in a Suit" when she left TV to become a successful Wall Street financial consultant for 5 years. She was a media consultant and trained cooking instructor for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) often doing 2 classes every weekday.
She wrote her best-selling book after seeing too many news stories saying eating healthfully on a budget was impossible. Her book went to a second printing faster than any other book in her publisher’s long history. At the request of her publisher, she is working on two more books and has spoken at the largest VegFests in the US and Canada since her book came out last year. Recently, in 4 days, 5 Whole Foods stores in South Florida prepared food from Ellen's book during her talk. Her energy is endless.
PCRM’s Dr. Neal Barnard says “There is no one better qualified to write this book … Ellen has an encyclopedic knowledge of food and food pricing. I admire that unlike so many people, Ellen is not trying to sell any product, device or gimmick.
” Many seek Ellen’s expertise in modeling a healthy lifestyle, especially after her mother, aunt & both sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer. She was part of the original breast cancer gene studies.
Many media stories say her life is an experiment to beat the odds. Discovering the truth about food has been the investigative reporting job of her life.
Vicki Chelf was born in Kentucky where she was raised on crispy cornbread, fluffy white biscuits, fried potatoes, pinto beans, greens, fried apple pies, and other delights that Southern country cooking is famous for. Growing up with rich delicious food made from scratch was a mixed blessing, because although cooking with ease comes naturally to her, Vicki became an overweight kid.
After naturally shedding the excess pounds in her teen years, Vicki vowed that she would never be overweight again. After a youthful period of extreme dieting and exercising, she learned how to stay trim and fit in a healthful manner. In 1971 she became a vegetarian and moved to the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec where she wrote La Grande Cuisine Vegetarienne, which stayed in print for over 20 years. It was one of the first vegetarian cookbooks ever printed in French.
Today, Vicki has 8 titles to her name including, Cooking with the Right Side of the Brain, The Arrowhead Mills Cookbook, and most recently Vicki’s Vegan Kitchen, with a forward by Dr. Neal Barnard. She is co-author of Cooking for Life and has assisted several other authors with their book projects, including Sandy Pukel, founder of the Taste of Health Cruises.
Vicki has been teaching vegetarian cooking since the mid-1970’s and vegan cooking since the 80’s. She has a bachelors of science in Holistic Nutrition and is a fine arts graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design. She hosted Sustainable Sarasota on WSLR 96.5 FM radio for 6 years.
Title: “Health Starts Here”
Description: Join us as we explore the four pillars of Healthy Eating. The talk includes a cooking demonstration to show how easy eating healthy can be.
Curtis Whitwam -Whole Foods Market Healthy Eating Specialist.
-Worked in the food service industry for the last 23 years.
-Certified Herbalist
-Organic gardener for 10 years.
-Explored and researched health, nutrition, and wellness for the last 15 years.
Healthy Eating is his passion.
Kristy Williamson is the owner and chef of Vida de Cafe, a raw-vegan restaurant on St. Pete beach. Kristy attended culinary school in Canada, where she also worked in various local restaurants. Culinary school did not quite satisfy her passion for the raw and vegetarian lifestyle, so she sought out to find as much as she could about the creativity and healthfulness of vegan, raw, and vegetarian cooking. During a raw food potluck at a local health food store she began the journey of adopting the raw vegan lifestyle. It was then that her passion and creativity flourished for this way of life and she began sharing not only her knowledge, but her love of food as well. Under the training of Alissa Cohen she learned to train others on the wonders of raw food.
You can enjoy Kristy's wonderful menu at Vida de Cafe, which has been in business for almost three years; or at her upcoming restaurant, Ethic, which will debut sometime in late fall in downtown St. Petersburg. Kristy also hosts and teaches raw food cooking classes in the restaurant, where participants learn not only how to prepare delicious raw recipes but all the glorious benefits that come along with this way of eating. At Tampa Bay Veg Fest, Kristy is looking forward to teaching you recipes that will be fast and easy without compromising the taste and healthfulness of the dishes!
Schedule of Cooking Demonstrations
| # | Cooking Demonstrations at Tampa Bay Veg Fest | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Curtis Whitwam | 11:00 am - 12 noon |
| 2 | Ellen Jaffe Jones | 01:00 pm - 02:00 pm |
| 3 | Vicki Chelf | 02:30 pm - 03:30 pm |
| 4 | Kristy Williamson | 04:00 pm - 05:00 pm |