The Crew

 

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Founder: Brooke Ali

Hello.  My name is Brooke Ali and I’m a total FOODIE.  I love to eat out, travel the world and explore new cultures and different types of vegan cuisine. My life’s mission is to share amazing plant-based cuisine with the world. 

I became a Culinary Nutrition Expert through the Academy of Culinary Nutrition.  This enabled me to understand the healing aspects of food and how to create recipes that taste amazing.  I also took this one step further and became a Master of Macrobiotic Food through Live Vegan Vibrantly and actually treated my own autoimmune disease in the process.  Finally, becoming Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition through the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies at Cornell made me fully supported to provide valuable and impactful education.  I also hold a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota and a Real Estate license for over 16 years.     

I created a curriculum around these concepts called: EnvironEat: Saving the Planet and Your Health in 7 Days.  This is a three week program with a 7 day emersion.  Students learn how to cook, eat out, celebrate holidays and travel all while following a plant-based diet.  The course is meant to help those that are already vegan, plant curious and those that simply want to reduce their meat and dairy consumption. 

The preachy, in-your-face approach to create real change does not work on most people.  After all, we all like to make our own decisions.  In order to do this, we need to know true, unbiased facts, try amazing food and ultimately decide for ourselves.  I learned this very valuable lesson from speaking publicly about the effects of our food and how it impacts our environment, our health and the animals.  I have been publicly speaking on this topic for the past two years.  People are extremely receptive to this approach.  The most feedback I receive is that they want to change, but it’s just too hard.  This is why Noble Plant Food + Drink is so important.  We need to create ease and availability.

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Shan Ali

Shan is a natural and instinctual chef. He will oversee recipe development, perfection and creation along with Chef Perez. Shan went vegetarian at the age of 15 and gradually grew into a vegan diet by the time he was 16.  After suffering from obesity as a child, a vegan diet was extremely helpful in helping him to transition to a healthy weight and excel in sports.  Shan played football in high school and continues to play recreational sports in his spare time.

Shan is a Senior at University of Texas, majoring in BioMedical Engineering. Being a scientist, he has the patience and tenacity to perfect recipes after running test after test until he finds perfection.  For one of our pop-ups, Shan developed a vegan and gluten free slider bun that received rave reviews.  This was no easy feat and took over 72 recipe trials.

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Chef Armando Perez

Chef Armando was born in El Paso, Texas.  He relocated as a child and grew up in the mountains of New Mexico.  He has always been interested in creative expression. After adopting a vegan lifestyle and moving to Dallas in 2013, Armando’s journey in cooking was born.  He has cooked at local, vegan establishments such as: V-Eats, Modern Vegan and Tiki Loco, Deep Ellum and from 2017-2019 he managed Dallas’ most successful vegan kitchen at Spiral Diner and Bakery. His favorite cuisine is Mexican food, drawing inspiration from both of his grandmothers’ and parent’s recipes (Chef Perez’s father is also a Dallas chef). As a musician and chef, he is always trying to bring genuine and fresh ideas to the table.  Being both vegan and gluten free, Chef Perez is a perfect match.

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Katie Chiappini -Registered Dietitian

Katie Chiappini, MS, RDN, LDN, is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist based in the Philadelphia area.  She has a MS in Coordinated Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Pittsburgh and a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics from West Chester University. Katie is the Social Media Co-Chair for the New Jersey Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Her interests include nutrition counseling for Celiac Disease, gluten-free diets, allergies, food intolerances, vegetarian and vegan diets, pregnancy, and pediatric nutrition.