Roxane Shymkiw

Hi, I’m Roxane. I’m a Holistic Nutritional Consultant living in Calgary Alberta. I am a fan of food, travel, and cooking and love to spend time outdoors.

Food has always been an important part of my life. Growing up in a first generation Chinese Canadian family, food was a way to connect as a family, celebrate the big moments in life, and a way to bridge our cultural heritage and learn about North American food (like Hamburger helper!). As kids, if we wanted to eat the same foods as our friends (lasagna anyone?) we had to go to the library to borrow a cookbook and learn to cook it ourselves. This really set me on a path of how much enjoyment food could bring.

Fast forward to university - after finishing a Master‘s degree in biomedical engineering, my husband and I found ourselves in the UK. While looking for an engineering position, I went to culinary school, gaining the Cordon Bleu diploma and fell into work as a personal chef and caterer to London’s rich and famous, and an educator and business owner. I fell in love with foods from different cultures through travel and the vibrant multicultural food scene of London. I learned how simply prepared foods could be delicious and nourishing for the soul.

I was excited to share my passions when we returned to Calgary and started teaching cooking classes. Around the same time, my daughter decided to become vegetarian, so I began researching how to ensure she would be getting the nutrients a growing child needed, and it led me to complete the Plant Based Nutrition Certificate program from Cornell University. I found a plant forward way of eating a satisfying and positive way of eating for the omnivores and vegetarian in the house.

I enjoy teaching but was watching the people around me, for all their best efforts to try to eat healthily, myself included, still have a wide range of health related symptoms that I just couldn’t accept as part of “having kids” or “getting older”. This inspired me to attend the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. It’s science based teaching was the perfect match for my curiosity of why and how nutrition could benefit our health. I want to share the skills and information that will help people turn that corner to better health. I am honoured and excited to be able to use my knowledge and experience as a chef and holistic nutrition consultant to help people navigate sustainable changes in their diet and lifestyle to live their healthiest and happiest lives.