Ep 65: Culinary Alchemy with Serena Poon
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Ep 65: Culinary Alchemy with Serena Poon
Episode 65: Show Notes
Today's guest, celebrity chef, Serena Poon started a movement called Culinary Alchemy, where she advocates for functional nutrition through the mindful combination of food and healing intuition. She is a trained chef, a Reiki master, and owns a thriving media platform where she highlights changemakers who make the world a better place.
Her mission to learn everything she could about the healing power of diet started from an early age when both her mother and her father were diagnosed with cancer only two years apart from one another. While her family was set on Serena becoming a lawyer, she secretly took out loans to go to culinary school instead, feeling like she was guided by something within. Now a leading chef to the Hollywood elite, Serena has set herself apart in a saturated industry through her genuine passion for curating intentional healing and wellness programs designed to help people achieve optimal, sustainable health.
In today’s episode, she shares some of the philosophies that were echoed in her household growing up, including the value of hard work and self-sacrifice, which sometimes came at the expense of optimal health.
You’ll find out how her parents’ diagnoses shifted Serena’s perspective on success and purpose and what inspired her to take a leap of faith and pursue her dreams of becoming a chef, even when she encountered strong resistance along the way.
She also speaks candidly about her own health issues and the divine coincidences that ended up saving her life, as well as how she discovered the importance of allowing others the grace of serving you in the way you serve them.
Serena has a powerful message to share about trusting your intuition, being intentional about your energy, and practicing gratitude, so make sure not to miss this inspiring conversation!
Key Points From This Episode:
Learn where Serena grew up and her favorite toy as a child: a koala bear stuffed animal.
Hear about the philosophy of working hard that was echoed in her household growing up.
The mantra of self-sacrifice that was part of her upbringing and how that sometimes came at the expense of health.
How American culture conflicted with her own as a first generation Chinese-American.
What Serena means when she says the kitchen was the center of her family home.
Find out why she wanted to be an archeologist like Indiana Jones when she grew up.
What led her to study pre-law at UC Berkley and how everything changed when her dad was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer.
What she would have done differently, knowing what she knows now about nutrition.
Hear how her parents’ diagnoses shifted Serena’s perspective of success and purpose.
How her decision to go to take out loans to go to culinary school was received by her family.
What inspired her to take that leap of faith, despite her family being unsupportive of it.
Why being a chef was perceived as a low level blue-collar job by her Chinese family.
Serena reflects on becoming a top chef in a traditionally male-dominated space.
The connection that comes with ‘breaking bread’ that drew Serena to food in the first place.
The environment of “supportive competition” that she found herself in with her classmates.
How stubbornness helped Serena along the early part of her journey to becoming a chef.
How her childhood hero, Indiana Jones, helped her decide what she wanted to do.
Why Serena chose to do her internship at the Playboy Mansion, which ultimately launched her career as a celebrity chef.
Serena shares her advice for culinary students who want to work in the private sector.
Find out what she loved about working as Hugh Hefner’s personal chef, including access to the best ingredients in the world.
Learn more about her experience, responsibilities, and interactions at the Playboy Mansion.
Serena elaborates on her own health issues, which began with stress-related inflammation.
Hear about her near-death experience from a hematoma caused by one of her surgeries.
She outlines the series of divine coincidences that resulted in a doctor saving her life.
The importance of acknowledging every part of your journey, even if it’s difficult.
What Gary Marshall taught her about not disappearing when times got dark.
The value of allowing others the grace of serving you in the way you serve them.
Learn more about Culinary Alchemy, Serena’s programs for healing and optimizing the body by way of integrative and functional nutrition.
Understanding the alignment between your chakras and organ systems; eat the rainbow.
The importance of the intentional energy you carry when preparing or consuming food.
How to connect your physical, emotional, mental, and energetic body in gratitude.
How Serena defines success now: feeling a sense of peace about whatever she does.
Tweetables:
“There was this awareness of [alternative] medicine, this type of remedy, because it was just part of [my parents’ Chinese] upbringing, but not an awareness of the power of nutrition and all these other practices that have now come into my life, that I know have healing powers.” — @chefserenapoon [0:25:46]
“I knew my family wasn't going to be supportive. That's why I didn't tell them, because I knew, if I told them before, they would talk to me out of it. I knew it also wasn't going to take a lot to talk to me out of it, because I felt like I had this obligation to serve my family.” — @chefserenapoon [0:38:57]
“[Being a chef] is a blue-collar job. It is not what your parents sacrificed so much for you to do, to give you this opportunity for a better life, for a higher level of education, to have the opportunities that come with [that].” — @chefserenapoon [0:40:23]
“The kitchen and especially the French kitchen at that time has been very traditionally a male-dominated space. If you wanted to earn your respect, if you wanted to make it in that environment, you had to bring it. You had to show that you could.” — @chefserenapoon [0:44:18]
“Cooking was a way that I was connecting to my dad. Doing something in that space, I felt, was a way I was connecting to my dad. I didn't know what I was going to do when I came out.” — @chefserenapoon [0:52:58]
“There are these narratives that we have. ‘It's not like I have cancer. Both my parents had cancer. Whatever it is that I'm going through, it is nothing like that they went through. I'm alive. I'm fine. Let's go in, fix this, then get back to life.’ That’s how I was treating [it].” — @chefserenapoon [1:19:33]
“There's so much more to every part of your journey, whether it's painful, or terrifying, or traumatic, or sad. There's so much more there, that you learn not just about yourself but about the people around you.” — @chefserenapoon [1:26:31]
“We always have support in some way, whether it's our friends, our community, even online. [There] is always support, and [we] matter. [Each] one of us matters so much that we have to allow other people to help serve us the way we serve them.” — @chefserenapoon [1:34:10]
“If you can remember to try to eat whole foods that cover the colors of the rainbow, you will actually hit every chakra, but you'll also hit the needs, the phytonutrient needs of every organ system.” — @chefserenapoon [1:39:00]
“Just taking that moment to direct [intentional] energy into what you're putting back into your body or the body of someone that you love will make a profound difference.” — @chefserenapoon [1:43:27]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: