About Valerie Skinner

Long Story Short . . . 

Valerie Skinner is a certified healing foods chef trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute (now part of ICE) in NYC, the first culinary school dedicated to health supportive cooking to be accredited nationally.

Valerie started her career in the health industry over a decade ago working as a personal trainer, sport supplement consultant, chiropractic assistant and holistic health coach. She has helped open thousands of minds to a new healthy lifestyle by being a private chef and health mentor for terminally ill patients, catering celebrity music events and has helped pioneer the healthy food movement in Hawaii by introducing others to juice cleansing and providing healthy foods for different types of diets as the executive chef and co-manager for a popular healthy eatery and juicery in Honolulu Hawaii.

Valerie is the co-founder and natural foods chef for Jar + Fork, a successful fast-casual health restaurant concept Miami FL. Now residing in Northern Virginia with her husband and son, Valerie is committed to helping herself and others understand how to use food and health to become your best self by sharing her healthy recipes weekly her blog and Instagram. 

About Valerie Skinner | Short Story Long …

After graduating culinary school, I decided to follow my heart to the middle of nowhere with little clue about what would happen next. I ended up in Hawaii where I hit the ground running. Because of my fantastic training, I was able to persue personal chef jobs where I prepared foods for people with serious illness (i.e: cancer) and began to further believe the power that the right foods have over our bodies and how much impact it has on our minds and the way we think.

This life-changing experience led me to be much more positive and grateful for all I had and so I began working harder and eventually landed a dream job cooking backstage for concerts on the island. I have prepared food for Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffet, Journey, Morrisey, Jason Mraz and other musicians during that time in my life.

As I continued to do this part-time, I began to put myself out there as my confidence began to grow along with my resume. I took a shot at an executive chef position for a growing health café where I was in charge of the kitchen developing foods that used real simple ingredients that catered not only to the average person, but those that were vegan, on a raw food diet or had food sensitivity issues. It was here that I had fell in love with juicing and began to co-develop juicing programs for our clients.
During this time, I met my husband who is in the military and was stationed on an active submarine. Since he was gone so often, I was able to channel my time into something even bigger than I ever thought possible for my career. Through the café, I met my now friend and business partner and with the help of some other brilliant minds we met along the way, we opened Jar + Fork in Miami, FL in 2015.  Our restaurant was conceptualized around what we all collectively believed about food. This was that we should all have a place
to go that serves delicious meals that we WANT to cook but don’t have the time to. Jar + Fork is a fast-casual restaurant that serves real food meals and cold pressed juices using responsibly sourced ingredients in which our customers customize their meals in order to fit THEIR lives.

While I continue to stay a part of the restaurant, my husband’s career has recently taken us to beautiful Charleston South Carolina where his job has him home more often much to my happiness. I developed Thyme + JOY through my years of crafting how I can help people have a better life through food.

5 Random Facts About Me

• I grew up a total metal music junkie and was raised on Metallica
• I moved to Hawaii after culinary school for no reason and ended up staying for 5 years!
• I am a military wife
• I grew up on the Jersey Shore but only have an accent when I am there
• My wedding cost us $75 and I don’t regret a single thing

Let’s Connect!

• Follow me on Instagram: @thymeandjoy
• Email me anytime: thymeandjoy@gmail.com
• Follow my pinterest boards

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