We are so excited to be hosting chef and best-selling author Serena Wolf at the ASHA Penthouse. We fell in love with Serena on Instagram for her delicious (and healthy!) recipes, amazing humor, and impressive hustle. She is smart, passionate, creative, a self-starter — someone we greatly admire at ASHA — with a couple notable credentials, a degree from Le Cordon Bleu and Harvard.
In honor of her latest book The Dude Diet: Dinnertime being released, we sat down with Serena to learn more about her story. Don’t miss her at the ASHA Penthouse November 6th from 6-8 pm!

Given that I was an upsettingly picky eater until college, and my only culinary role model was my mother, a woman well versed in the fine art of burning things, it came as quite a shock to my family and friends when I announced my decision to attend Le Cordon Bleu Paris after college. My early cooking school days were mildly traumatic—which is unsurprising given that the only dish I’d successfully “cooked” up to that point was a burnt grilled cheese—but after a couple months, I had become a completely different person. I was gutting and filleting fish, deboning chickens, breaking down whole rabbits, and whipping up hollandaise sauce without breaking a sweat. The most insane part? I loved every second of it. Realizing that I’d found my (very unexpected) calling, I enthusiastically signed on to complete the full diploma program and never looked back.

Since graduating from LCB in 2011, I’ve worn many different culinary hats—private chef to players on the New York Giants, culinary instructor, freelance writer, recipe developer, nutritional spirit guide, cookbook author, and healthy lifestyle blogger. While my career path has been winding, and I’m constantly evolving personally and professionally, my forever mission is to make creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle realistic, accessible, and most importantly, FUN.