About Us

My name is Danielle. I would like to introduce you to my diet and lifestyle that evolved over a decade. This journey started because of my irritable bowel syndrome after giving birth to my first child. Then my husband’s nasal allergies disappeared. My son’s eczema and rashes during his first year of life disappeared. My daughter’s constipation that started after giving her formula resolved over time. I’m not a medical professional and I am not giving you medical advice. But I happen to have a PhD in Genetics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and training in research. I dig very deep, and I’ve poured out my time and energy into making better choices for my family’s wellbeing. And I wanted to share it with you. You may not be ready to make dramatic changes overnight, but every step you take towards the goal of becoming healthier counts!

I grew up in Busan, South Korea. The Korean food I ate there growing up was more traditional and less processed than now. My mother cooked at home every day. It was not the kind of flashy Korean food you see online – the home food was simple yet delicious and nutritious, with rice as the carbohydrate base, and a lot of freshly prepared vegetables. And there are the two staple fermented salty pastes called “Duen-jang” and “Go-chu-jang” which require a year to ferment and prepare (we did not do that process at our home, but many others who were more traditional did do it). Eating rice, Kimchi, seaweed and vegetable side dishes was an every day deal – even for breakfast. And I grew up by the seaside. My family used to go to the rocky beaches, where we would find oysters attached to the big rocks, and we would just take them off and eat them on the spot. I grew up eating live octopus as a delicacy and I loved the chewy textures of sea cucumbers and sea squirts. I am heartbroken when I think about how my children cannot do that at the beaches or enjoy a lot of raw seafood, and how contaminated seafood has become nowadays (especially with micro and nano plastics).

My husband was born and raised in Naples, Italy – the birthplace of pizza. His mom is a truly amazing cook. A quintessential Southern Italian mom – she is still in the kitchen all the time. My husband’s grandmother (mom’s mom) owned a trattoria, like a little eatery. In my in laws home, the kitchen is by far the largest, fanciest room in the house – truly, the heart of their house. My husband grew up learning how to cook from her – even though later on, he got kicked out from the kitchen often for making a mess. But passion for food is something that bound us together from the beginning. I have learned how to cook Italian food from him – I have to give him credit.

“We love food” is an understatement. We take food very seriously. Life, in our perspective, is really about working hard to buy food on our table, to feed the children, to be healthy, joyful and productive – while honoring God. Life revolves around food – we cannot live without it. We become intimate as we share food together, and a community cannot stand unless the members share food together. Food should not be manipulated or tinkered with, with the sole purpose to extend shelf life, or for the benefit of the seller and not for the buyer. And food should be taken with self control – we should not indulge in things or in amounts that will not serve us well.

Living a healthy lifestyle does not mean we stop celebrating! I handmade the decorations and flowers on the cakes using sugar gum paste. Each petal was formed out of a little piece of gum paste dough, rolled out under my fingers and shaped together. Each flower was carefully painted and dusted. And the cake under the decorations were made using the healthiest ingredients possible. When you truly celebrate an occasion with a carefully planned celebratory food, it becomes an extremely rare and special event to be remembered.