About Me
Hello! I’m Justin.
I’m a chef, food educator, community-builder, and sustainability scholar with over a decade of experience working across the food system. I’ve cooked in restaurants, worked on farms, and collaborated with nonprofits and research teams.
Along the way, I’ve spent years teaching cooking classes and workshops, helping people build confidence in the kitchen, understand where their food comes from, and reconnect with the magic of cooking. Over the past four years, I’ve also worked as a teaching assistant in Dalhousie University’s sustainability program, and mentored students as they explored real-world food system challenges.
While I no longer Chef full-time, cooking and teaching remain central to my life. I continue to lead classes, cook for and with others, and create spaces where food becomes a way to learn, connect, and take care of one another. If you’re interested in cooking together, learning more about food, or collaborating on food-centered projects, I’d love to meet you!
How Food Healed Me
In my early 20s, I was seriously unwell. I struggled with severe gut issues and chronic fatigue. I was doing very bad in university, and was unhappy, unsure of where I wanted to go in life. I had no energy, and I weighed over 250 pounds on a small frame. Something had to change.
Unsure about what to do career wise, I dropped out of University and enrolled in Cooking School. My father had been to cooking school too. He never became a chef, but he learned a lot. So I decide to try too, and it was only 1/3 the cost of a year at university.
The summer before school started, I fell down a flight of stairs and seriously injured my back, limiting my mobility even further. It was a turning point. I knew I couldn’t keep carrying that much weight on my body, and that real change was no longer optional.
I got a personal trainer, to rehabilitate and lose weight. While also starting cooking school. My whole relationship to food changed. I began loving to put the time into cooking. ditched all the processed foods, fast foods, and started eating very well. And got very into fitness. That was the beginning of a long healing journey.
Over the next few years, I lost about 100 pounds and rebuilt my relationship with food and I healed my gut There were no crash diets or extremes, just steady change. I learned to love food again, and to value the time spent preparing it. That process marked the beginning of a much longer healing journey. One that continues to shape how I cook, teach, and think about food today.
I share more of my food journey in my Journal: from falling back in love with food, to lessons from my years as a chef, time spent on farms, and the experiences that continue to shape how I cook and think about food.
My Food Philosophy
Food is both deeply personal and inherently collective. It is also political. It’s how we nourish ourselves, express care, and come together. And it’s also shaped by the systems, histories, and power structures that determine who has access and who does not.
While I was in cooking school, Chef Michael Smith visited our class and shared a simple idea that has stayed with me ever since: gather, prepare, and share. First we gather food, or at least come to know the hands, land, and labour that brought it to us. We must prepare it with care and intention. And then we must share it, because food reaches its fullest meaning when it’s offered to others.
Food has always brought people together, but it has also been used to divide. Through land ownership, borders, exploitive labour & extraction. Holding both of these truths matters. It asks us to be honest about the past while taking responsibility for what we build next.
I believe we’re at a moment where we can choose a different path. One where food systems are more relational than extractive, where kitchens and knowledge are shared, and where people feel supported in feeding themselves and their communities. It starts with care, collaboration, and a willingness to try. I’m optimistic because I see people everywhere already doing this work, quietly and collectively. My goal is simply to help connect those efforts, and to keep building toward food systems that bring us closer together.
I share more of these reflections along with personal stories, lessons from working in food, and the occasional rants, in my Journal.
My Work
Right now, much of my energy is focused on building Food Web: A platform working to strengthen local food systems by making it easier for people to share kitchens, infrastructure, and resources. At its core, Food Web is about unlocking underused spaces, supporting food entrepreneurs, and helping communities feed themselves more resiliently.
Food Web grew directly out of my lived experience as a chef, educator, and researcher. And out of seeing, again and again, how fragmented and inaccessible food infrastructure can be. I share more about why we’re building it, what we’re learning, and where it’s headed in a longer piece in my journal.
My Experience
My work spans kitchens, farms, classrooms, nonprofits, and research spaces. Over the years, I’ve collaborated with a wide range of organizations. Sometimes as a chef or educator, sometimes as a facilitator or researcher, and often wearing a few hats at once.
These experiences have shaped how I think about food: not just as something we cook and eat, but as a system shaped by access, policy, culture, and care. They’ve also given me a practical understanding of what works on the ground, and where things tend to break down.
Below are some of the organizations and communities I’ve had the opportunity to work with along the way.
Organizations I’ve Worked With
If you’re curious to see how these pieces fit together, my portfolio traces that path in more detail. From hands-on food work to systems-level projects.
Education
I’ve followed my curiosity across many forms of learning. From cooking and herbal medicine to food systems and business, I’ve explored how food nourishes people, and shapes the world around us.
Culinary Management, St. Lawrence College - where I now sit on the Program Advisory Committee
Holistic Nutrition, Canadian School of Natural Nutrition
Herbal Medicine Level 1, Bloom Institute
BA in Sustainability & Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University
Master’s in Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Smith School of Business - Queen’s University
Follow My Journey
I share updates on writing, cooking classes, events, and projects as they unfold. If you’re curious to cook together, learn, or stay connected to this work, you’re welcome to follow along.