OUR INSTRUCTORS ARE THE BEST! 

 

Meet our team: a group of chefs, specialists, farmers, small business owners, moms, dads, and humans passionate about living life and joyfully disrupting the trend of chronic illness through the power of food as medicine, breathing, sunlight, cold exposure, movement and joy. Watch their videos below and get to know them!

PAM

Chef

ARAN

Chef

PETRA

Chef

ANDREW

Chef

SHOOKS

Chef

BOB

Breath & Cold Plunge

JANINE

Organ Meats

BAM

Primal Movement

HILDA

Ancestral Wisdom

MARK 

Raw Dairy 

MONICA

 Fermentation

 

CHEF PAM

Pam is a private chef and school lunch leader. She helped start the snack and lunch program at Manzanita school with Hilary over 9 years ago. From growing up cooking in the kitchen with her mom, Pam has a love and know-how when it comes to food, health and being a good steward of the earth. Her knowledge, sense of humor, kindness and experience will guide attendees all week long and encourage them when they’re back in their home kitchens. 

CHEF ARAN

Aran is a professional chef, husband and father of two, global traveler, and a lover of food in all its forms. From early memories of his mom’s homemade Matzah balls, he now teaches students how to cook in-person and online for the past several years. He helped to start lunch programs based on SŌL values at two schools in Texas, and has been a core SŌL chef at nearly all previous School of Lunch Training Academies. He’ll share his expertise, skills, tips, laughter and encouragement with all the attendees, making you want to jump back home and start cooking!

 
 

CHEF PETRA

Bringing smiles, joy, dancing and the flavor of Brazil chef Petra knows how to live joyfully and healthy with food at the center of it all. Petra is a private chef, caterer and lunch leader at the Manzanita school with Hilary. She grew up eating local, seasonal and nutrient dense foods and continues this way of eating through the food she prepares. She has been a SŌL chef at the past 4 academies and puts her love and smile into each dish she creates.

CHEF ANDREW

Chef Andrew is the Nourishment Program Director for three school campuses, managing the culinary program and the school’s satellite regenerative and organic farm. He is also the Culinary Medicine Chef for MaxLove Project, which teaches cooking classes for cancer survivor families. Chef Andrew has more than three decades of knowledge working in, and around, professional kitchens, higher education, healthcare and local farms. He believes in a whole-food approach to nutrition, growing your own food, choosing local food producers and the holistic concept of food as medicine. He brings a deep well of knowledge and experience from his background as director and culinary instructor at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute, Orange County. Along with being a skilled and talented chef, you’ll find him laughing and dancing with attendees all week long. 

 

 CHEF SHOOX

Chef Shoox has been a member of the SŌL team since early days at Manzanita school. She is one of the chefs and instructors at the academy. Shoox brings her Iranian culture to influence her rich cuisine at the school and the Training Academy. A wealth of knowledge and always up for a laugh, you can find her dancing in the kitchen while serving up something colorful and delicious.

BOB

BREATHING & COLD EXPOSURE SPECIALIST

Self-directed explorer of human performance and potential, Bob is an Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor and a Level 2 Wim Hof Method Instructor trained directly under Wim Hof.

Through his company, Breathe Your Power, he puts people back in touch with their innate powers, their native capacity to modulate their autonomic nervous system, to become resilient, happier, healthier, stronger, improve performance, find their voice, stay present, and change and shift their lives with more ease and grace.  

 He has trained thousands since 2017 using breath, HRV training and biofeedback, mindset, learning about physiology and neurology, aligning with circadian programming, controlled stressors (such as cold), good old-fashioned fun and community to create a space for exploration, growth, performance optimization, and transformation.

 
 

JANINE

ORGAN MEATS SPECIALIST

Janine Farzin empowers people to elevate their health by confidently incorporating organ meats into daily meals. For over a decade, she’s been serving these dishes to family and friends and founded OffallyGoodCooking.com in 2017. With engineering degrees from UC Berkeley and MIT, Janine loves optimizing health through the most nutrient-rich foods. She is a Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader in Grand County, CO and can be found in the river or on the mountain year-round.

 Learn how to walk the talk by confidently incorporating organ meats into your diet and learning to love them! Janine Farzin will give practical tips for overcoming squeamishness, prepping organs and confidently cooking them. She’ll remind you why you need to add organs into your diet today but show you how to be gentle with yourself along this journey.

BAM

PRIMAL MOVEMENT SPECIALIST

Movement coach Bam Lionheart teaches primal movement, traveling the globe connecting, sharing, and educating communities on the natural ways the human body is designed to move. His goal is to give each client an increase in personal freedom, autonomy, and sovereignty through movement education and immersion. 

 Bam teaches primal movements to increase kinesthetic awareness and motor repatterning to help his clients combat chronic pain, increase presence and awareness of their body, and reintegrate healthy and natural movement patterns into their everyday lives. He has experience in gymnastics, football, jiu jitsu, wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, endurance running, endurance swimming, climbing, yoga, and modern dance.

 
 

HILDA

ANCESTRAL WISDOM SPECIALIST

Hilda Labrada Gore is the host and producer of the Wise Traditions Podcast (14+ million downloads to date) on behalf of the Weston A. Price Foundation. She is a certified health coach, traveling the world and exploring traditional practices to improve the energy and vitality of humanity. She empowers attendees to build habits based on ancient wisdom that can transform your health and energy through sun, cold exposure, proper sleep, strength through movement, community and connection, mindset and proper sustenance.

MARK MCAFEE

RAW DAIRY SPECIALIST

Our dairy studies are ended with a presentation by none other than the head of Raw Farms, Mark McAfee. He will teach, guide, dispel and defend the truth about raw dairy and all of its amazing, robust health benefits. At the end there’s a Q&A so attendees can ask their own questions. 

MONICA

FERMENTATION SPECIALIST

At the end of a full, fun day shopping at farmers market and a hands-on lunch experience, attendees will get to hear Monica of Real Food Devotee share and speak on all things fermentation. Monica is a fermentation specialist and runs a nutrient dense food delivery service in southern California. Attendees will get to ask questions and take a deep-dive into all that fermentation has to offer and how it benefits our health so mightily. 

Attend Our Training Academy & Meet The Team

Take a deep-dive into the beautiful natural setting of Topanga while learning from Hilary and the SŌL team all about sourdough, fats, proteins and organ meats, sourcing, breath work, cold plunges and sunshine!

GRAB TICKETS HERE!