Fran Costigan is an internationally recognized culinary instructor, author, and consultant. She is considered the specialist in naturally organic, luscious desserts that just happen to be egg-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free.

A graduate of the New York Restaurant School, the Natural Gourmet Institute, and Peter Kump's Professional Pastry Intensive, Fran was a pastry chef in both traditional and vegan restaurant kitchens. Today, Fran teaches her distinctive courses (including her unique Vegan Baking Boot Camp®) in NYC, at the Institute of Culinary Education and at the Natural Gourmet Institute, and she presents demonstration classes and lectures at venues throughout the US and Canada.

Fran has been featured making her celebrated "Chocolate Cake to Live For" on the Discovery Health Channel's show, "Get Fresh With Sara Snow." and has been featured in a number of publications.

Professional affiliations include the New York Women's Culinary Alliance (NYWCA), International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR), and Fran is proud to work with the New York Coalition for Healthy School Foods.

For more information about Fran, visit www.francostigan.com.


Alexandra Jamieson has been seen on Oprah, The Final Word, 30 Days and The National Health Test with Bryant Gumble. She was even featured in the award-winning documentary Super Size Me.

Why? Because Alex has proven herself to be a wise and profound voice for holistic nutrition and healthy living.

In her book, The Great American Detox Diet (Rodale, 2005), Alex offers remarkably sane – and tasty – advice on how to detox, live healthfully and feel fantastic.

Her knowledge of nutrition has been artfully developed through years of both professional and self-study. As the daughter of natural health advocates, Alex crafted a unique personal mission to spread the word about the power of healthy food and the astounding ways in which it can positively transform everyday life.

Alex now commands a matchless repertoire of nutritional wisdom and food savvy. She is a professionally trained healthy gourmet chef, having studied at New York City's Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. She refined her techniques by cooking professionally in Milan, Italy, as well as at a variety of popular New York City restaurants.

In addition, Alex is a certified health and nutrition counselor. She studied with ground-breaking pioneers in the field of nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is accredited by Columbia University's Teacher's College and by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.

Alex also traveled the world, visiting over 20 countries, premiering Super Size Me, an Oscar-nominated documentary, acting as a messenger for the power of holistic nutrition and healthy detoxing. Though she readily and ably shares her message with all, her passion is helping professional women enhance their ability to excel and achieve using healthy food as a catalyst.

Time and again, her clients experience the magic that happens when they feel great in their own bodies. Members of her programs step up to a new level of confidence and willingly expand and explore bigger dreams and authentic goals.

A healthy and energetic vegan herself, Alex lives in New York City with her family and a lively boy cat named Sue. She is currently working on her next book and proves that living a healthy life is most definitely far from boring.


Vincent Peterson My grandmother, a private chef in Trenton, New Jersey, trained me from an early age to mind what's in the oven. My sister Peg, her prodigy, owned and operated The Cafe, in Lambertville (and then Rosemont), NJ, where I worked through high school until leaving for college in 1989.

While at college in Boulder, Colorado, I cooked for The Creative Vegetarian Cafe, an Indian owned restaurant whose food I found sublime. The flavors were South Indian and the Dosas were irresistible.

At twenty-six I enrolled at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners and completed their Masters program after serving as an apprentice at Ristorante La Corte, in Lurago d'Erba, Italy in1998.

I then moved from Italy to San Francisco where I joined the world-renowned vegetarian eatery, Millennium Restaurant, and served as Lead Line Cook (1999 and 2000) and then Sous Chef (2003 and 2004) for Chef Eric Tucker.

During my break from Millennium I spent a year as Dinner Chef at Headlands Center for the Arts (2001) in Sausalito, California and then spent 2002 traveling throughout Thailand and Cambodia, learning everything I could about Asian cuisine.

I returned to the U.S. at the end of that year and was invited to join Millennium's team a second time. The opening of their new location in the Union Square district required an expanded concept and Eric and I collaborated on every aspect of running his kitchen. I cherish this as a pivotal moment in my career and I feel deeply honored by Eric's unwavering guidance.

In 2003 I met another Eric, Eric Fenster, who was busy creating Back to Earth Organic Catering with his partner Ari Derfel (now launching Terrain Restaurant). Bidding farewell to restaurants for awhile, I served as Executive Chef and Chef de Cuisine for them from 2003 to 2006 and saw their operations through the growth from an 86K to a 1.3 million dollar business – all organic.

I missed restaurants, so I started Kindle Cafe – a monthly Supper Club in Downtown San Francisco. The journey from there is what's become my very own business in a thriving niche – personal health.

The name Kindle Cafe comes from the ancient Indian science of well-being, called Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, your health depends largely on your Agni, or fire. To process food properly, we must have a good fire going in our bellies.

This is the mission of Kindle Cafe – to kindle your fire.

The sister science of Ayurveda is Yoga, which is also an important part of my life. My practice began in 1998 with Ester Myers' book, Yoga and You . I then certified to teach Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga at It's Yoga of San Francisco in 2003 and the dynamic hybrid practice, Acroyoga in 2008. Additional study includes multiple, ten-day Vipassana meditation seminars with teacher S.N. Goenka and Kriya Yoga with Maharishi Arvind at his ashrams in Maharastra, India.

With deep gratitude to all of my teachers, especially my parents, I offer Kindle Cafe.

My wife, Carolyn Cohen, and I now cook, practice and teach together in Lambertville, New Jersey.


Sheri DeMaris, M.Ed is a holistic health counselor who has taught whole foods/macrobiotic cooking at various restaurants and cooking schools throughout the United States and Europe. She has run wellness seminars and created programs for "healthy living" for public school programs K-12, community colleges and universities. Sheri has authored articles on healthy lifestyles, school lunch programs and cooking for various magazines. She continues to host, produce and direct a local alternative health TV show, "Tea With Sheri." She has also produced and hosted a cooking DVD for the network, a one hour documentary on the history of natural foods and a number of kids' cooking videos.

Sheri is an adjunct professor in the Alternative Health Program for medical students at Hahnemann University, Philadelphia and has been a full-time counselor for 26 years. Sheri holds a Masters in Counseling from the College of William and Mary, VA, and a postmasters in Counseling from Villanova University, PA.

Sheri is a graduate of the Level 4 Certification Program at the Kushi Institute. She has studied macrobiotic health counseling in Lier, Belgium and has been trained as a "Food is Elementary" educator and a shiatsu practitioner. Sheri has spoken on "Healthy School Lunch Programs" before the USDA, to a number of school district program initiatives and most recently in Tokyo, Japan. She designed and ran one of the first Natural Foods Kids' Summer Camps in Killington, Vermont. Sheri DeMaris is currently a full-time Guidance Counselor at Valley Forge Middle School, Wayne, PA. In addition to fulfilling her job responsibilities as a counselor, she created a healthy cooking program for public school students. This year she was the recipient of the "Golden Carrot Award" from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for "exceptional innovation and leadership in promoting child health and nutrition".

Sheri offers cooking classes, lectures and seminars as well as individual counseling and cooking instruction. To schedule an appointment with her email sheri@teawithsheri.com.


Marilee Tolen, RN (aka "Home Spa Lady") is a Board Certified Holistic Nurse with a background in Energy Medicine, Cleansing and Detox, Whole Foods Cooking, and the Therapeutic Use of Essential Oils. Marilee's holistic healing background is diverse. A third generation healer, she has also studied extensively and is considered an expert in Natural Health Care. Marilee is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing Science and Intuition Training with Caroline Myss, she taught Healing Touch for 12 years, is certified as a Colon Hydrotherapist, owned and operated a physician staffed Wellness Center, is finishing her certification as a Clinical Aromatherapist, and is currently enrolled in Christina Pirello's School of Natural Cooking at Drexel University. Marilee shares her work extensively online and also provides live presentations and workshops.

For more information about Marilee, visit www.homespalady.com.


Manisha Patel Creating exciting flavors through simple ethnic foods and food preparations has always been Manisha's passion as well as challenge. This, in Manisha’s view, engenders a much simpler and healthy lifestyle and thereby, enables one to focus on higher thinking.

Growing up in Bombay (Mumbai, India), a melting pot of diverse Indian traditions and cultures, Manisha was deeply influenced by the art and variety of Indian cuisine. Those formative years later helped expand her interests beyond traditional cooking into areas such as growing her own herbs and vegetables, and creating fusion foods.

Manisha has a BS in Chemistry with a Masters in Biochemistry from Bombay University. Childhood interest in food and how it interacts with human body led her to the Food Science program at Rutgers University. There, the primary focus of her Graduate research was Ayurveda. Her passion and keen interest in learning more and advocating good, healthy and vegetarian eating habits lead her to study at the Natural Kitchen Cooking School. Here is where she learned traditional cooking methods from other cultures, completely different from what she was exposed to in Bombay.

She joyfully serves the community by touching people’s lives through healthy food prepared with love.


Latham Thomas is a graduate of both Columbia University, where she earned a degree in Visual arts and Environmental Science, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is a certified holistic health counselor, and a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She stud- ied as an herbal apprentice, under a master herbalist in California beginning at age 7, learning about medicinal herbs and wild edibles.

Today Latham mixes her passions of plant physiology, botany, holistic wellness, fitness, yoga, and cuisine into a lifestyle program that supports the various needs of her clients. Specializing in maternal and child wellness, Latham served as Program coordinator and head instructor for the Healthy Moms-Healthy Babies project for the B-Healthy organization. She has been featured on Fox 5 news as an expert on organic foods and kid's health.

She was a chef at a downtown yoga studio, where she prepared vegetarian, vegan, and raw food for yogis. Latham was a featured chef at the North American Vegetarian Society's Summerfest this July. She has taught culinary education to youth at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health in NYC, and guest teaches at the Natural Kitchen Cooking School in New Jersey. She is passionate about educating others about food.

Latham is also certified Vinyasa Yoga tradition, she teaches yoga and Mindful Eating workshops at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center. Her favorite dish is sauteed brussel sprout greens with garlic and olive oil.

View her website here: www.tendershootswellness.com