Hi, I'm Katrina!

I’m a spice-loving, garden-obsessed chef and explorer of cultures and love sharing my passion of good food with YOU! I'm an American living in France with my sweet husband, who is a professional beekeeper...which means we have honey for life. 🙂 I'm delighted you're here and can't wait to get started cooking together!

We can cook together in person in France or online. Send me an email and I'll be happy to work with you - katrina@empoweredkitchen.com

My mission:

I have a knack for making cooking fun and approachable for people of all ages and cooking abilities. Let's get you, your partner, your friends, some kids, or your whole team together in the kitchen!

You'll learn practical ways to make healthy food taste good AND connect with those important people in your life around the stovetop and the table. Let's bring this world together around the dinner table and share that thing called love.

I have a passion for food waste reduction and how to spread the word about how it addresses issues ranging from climate change, to hunger, and our food budget. It's a win-win!

See you ASAP in the kitchen!

Sustainability & The Empowered Kitchen

I have incorporated my passion for sustainability into my business by offering Meal Prep Classes and by teaching you how to make the most of food scraps in a variety of dishes.

March 2020 Interview with Jacques Pépin

about Food Waste: How & Why we Should Use our Food Wisely

The Power of Reusing Food Scraps

What you think is waste might be your next meal! There are many creative ways to use the all the often castaway parts of fruits, vegetables, meats and bones that can make hearty, nutrient-rich and delicious meals!
Food scraps make great stocks, sauces & creative dishes, even before you compost the rest.
Katrina's classes will teach you all about how to do this!

Benefits of Cutting Back on Food Waste

Save Money

The average American family of 4 throws away $2,200 worth of food every year!
Every day the U.S. creates enough food waste to fill the Rose Bowl Stadium at least once, and maybe twice, depending on the estimate.
If we reduced this food waste by just 16%, we could feed every hungry person in America.

Fight Climate Change: It's Real Folks

Methane is a greenhouse gas. Rotting food emits a lot of methane. Landfills are the second largest source of methane after - ahem - cow farts. Food waste makes up the largest part of those methane emissions.
For the first 20 years that food is rotting, the methane is 72 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2
19% of landfill waste is food scraps. This food waste is heavy (mostly made up of water) and is often shipped by trucks that get an average of 4-7 mpg! This represents more CO2 emissions and trashed tax dollars too.
Every time food is thrown away, all the resources used to grow, package, distribute and store that food were wasted too. This includes water, fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, packaging materials, electricity for refrigeration, and so much more.

Learn to Compost:

Food scraps make great compost!

This compost can then be used on your own vegetable garden to enrich the soil and grow healthy food. It can also be given to area farmers for them to grow food for us. This is a great, free alternative to petroleum-based fertilizers, which also can have a negative environmental impact

*All statistics taken from American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of It's Food (and What We Can Do About It), by Jonathan Bloom