Meet Conscious Cooks
By Krystle J Bailey
Conscious cooks, founded in 2018 by Kayla Randazzo and Michele Carty is taking Atlantic County on a ride towards health. What originally began as a friendly meet up between two local women who shared a passion for health has grown exponentially in less than a year. Conscious Cooks became and official LLC in 2018 and Michelle and Kayla haven’t stopped cooking since.
Kayla and Michelle, who both have shared a passion for healthy living and cooking as a hobby, found themselves next to each other at a Crossfit Health expo last March. Their instant friendship inspired a collaboration that has amounted to become monthly cooking classes and now, a healthy food delivery service for all of Atlantic County.
The duo uses the kitchen at The Iron Room in Atlantic City as a homebase. In the kitchen, they only use nutritionally dense foods for their recipes, without any use of processed or artificial ingredients. All of the meals being prepared are either vegan or vegetarian and many of them are also gluten free.
Cooking classes take place once per month at The Iron Room with some pop-up classes taking place throughout Atlantic County. Class participants receive a menu card and an opportunity to try several different themed dishes at each class. Some previous themes have included BBQ night, A Taste of Thai, and more. Throughout the course of the cooking class, the students are taught why each ingredient was chosen, the nutritional benefits of each ingredient, and ways to get creative with their cooking while staying healthy.
Conscious Cooks had so much success with their classes that they have decided to branch out and begin a food delivery service with all of the delectable meals that cooking class attendees love so much. Each Monday at the Iron Room, Kayla and Michele prep and cook meals for their take out customers for the week. Patrons are able to order as many meals as they’d like for the week up until Saturday. Sunday, fresh ingredients are purchased. Monday is when the magic happens in the kitchen. Then, Tuesday Michele and Kayla deliver the fresh cooked meals in biodegradable, reheatable containers throughout Atlantic County.
The Conscious Cooks are just getting started as they work to spread a message of healthy living throughout Atlantic County. Their next class is taking place on January 14th from 6-8pm at The Iron Room. Tickets are $45 per person and each guest will enjoy 4-5 different dishes all centered around this month’s theme – healthy comfort food.
Connect with Conscious Cooks on all social media platforms at Conscious Cooks NJ or www.consciouscooksnj.com .
Krystle J Bailey is a multimedia journalist, freelance writer, and self published author.
