Hello! Welcome to the Simplified Chef kitchen.
My name is Kalisha and I am a wife, mom of 3, and classically trained chef. I worked in the hospitality industry for 2 decades as a restaurant manager, chef, and culinary instructor before I picked up my first DSLR and took up food photography.
Now I publish food content on the Simplified Chef.
About Kalisha, Food Photographer and Recipe Developer
Why Simplified Chef? I am a classically trained chef and a graduate of Johnson and Wales University, one of the top culinary schools in the country. While I have all of the skills and knowledge to work in the best restaurants in the world, I'm a busy mom who wants to have great-tasting meals at home without spending all day in the kitchen. I lean into Asian and Latin flavors a lot in my cooking, so if you love shopping at international markets like H-Mart or Lotte Plaza, then you are in the right place.
I developed recipes and photographed recipes for some of the top-ranking, high-traffic food blogs before deciding to focus my attention on developing and photographing recipes for my own blog.
I'm a DC native so crab cakes and half-smokes were always on the scene. As I got older, my curiosity for international ingredients rose and I began experimenting with different flavors.
I love infusing international ingredients into almost everything I cook and I'm always on the hunt for the next new-to-me food find. I find inspiration from wandering the aisles of my local international market, reading books and eating at local mom-and-pop restaurants.
My goal is to show you how you can infuse bold flavors into familiar foods without spending all day in the kitchen.
What can you find on Simplified Chef?
If you're a decent home cook, bored with the same old-same old, I'll guide you through step-by-step recipes with global flavors that you'll want to put on regular rotation. You can start by trying out some of my favorite recipes on the site: Shitake garlic noodles and this instant pot birria.
Simple and easy weeknight dinners with global flavors are my specialty. Super simple desserts that don't require a pastry school diploma are the icing on the cake. I show you how to make it all with step-by-step photos for each recipe.
