For over 30 years I have shared my love of plants and my teaching expertise to help people thrive on a plant-based diet. I am most excited about spreading love and the opportunity to express my heart through sharing my gifts as a kind human being, a chef and an educator.
I am curious about nature and her beautiful bounty and adore showcasing her majestic world of plants. I am a dedicated earth steward and am in service to the Divine. I love creating and sharing simple and delicious plant strong recipes. I am passionate about eliminating the suffering of animals and work to help reduce individual and global environmental impact of animal consumption by helping others find their way to eating more plants. I personally follow a Flexitarian diet and honor all people’s personal food choices.
I am the owner and recipe developer of a vegan and gluten free product line called Super Natural Foods Company in Carmel, California. For the past few years, I have worked on the Mendocino Coast and held the Director position at Living Light Culinary Institute and the Co-Directorship at Living Light International. Shortly before taking on those roles, I was the Founding Chef and Instructor of a Culinary and Sustainable Hospitality Academy and helped to design a state of the art culinary kitchen classroom for students and school food service to prepare and serve healthy foods on campus. I was also the Founding Director of the Farm to School and Farm to College programs at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). While at CSUMB I helped to bring more organic and plant-based foods to their cafeteria offerings and helped launch Sodexho USA ’s organic produce procurement connection with Earthbound Farms. Our work together propelled a nationwide change in bringing more healthy offerings to the Institutions they served. I was also instrumental in writing and promoting healthy school and workplace food policies, building multiple school gardens, performing garden fresh chef demonstrations and implementing salad bars across Monterey County.
“Kari Bernardi is a true sunflower. Tall she stands with the simple intention of following the Light. Her presence is intense, but in the type of way that makes you feel whole and welcomed. She dances to an energy that makes her uniquely her; All the while sharing her gifts with the rest of the world. Her wisdom and joyous spirit combine to create a learning experience unlike any other – something we all can benefit more from these days. We have had the privilege to learn from Kari. She has given us skills, lessons and experiences that we will carry for the remainder of our lives. If you have the opportunity to learn from her, we can assure you it will be filled with laughs, magic and lots of love. The world needs more sunflowers, and Kari possesses the knowledge to help each of us sprout into one. Literally.”
– David & Yiota Italiano
How I Got Started
When I was really young I believed I was going to be the President of California (yes, California) or a millionaire or a psychiatrist. When I was in middle school we still had Home Economics and my cooking instructor was from Spain and he was flagrant and fun and brought recipes from his homeland to share and create with us and I absolutely loved the class. I started preparing and sharing plant based foods when I entered the food and beverage/hospitality industry in Carmel when I was 15 years old. I spent a lot of time exploring and learning meat-free recipes and techniques from people in my community and industry. Throughout high school I worked in restaurants, bakeries, pizza parlors, cafes and kitchen stores-gaining knowledge and insights into the beautiful world of food. Working gave me an authentic long term apprenticeship and helped me to learn the ropes while making my own money to travel the world.
Even though I immersed myself in food it never crossed my mind to become a chef or culinary instructor. By the time I went to UC Berkeley, I was thinking I’d be an environmental attorney or lobbyist or work for the World Bank or National Geographic-although my secret dream was to lead exercise classes at Club Meds all over the World. I was healthy when I went away to college-but by the time I had graduated Berkeley I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I was so sick and tired when I returned from school. I spent my days laying in bed and researching ways to heal myself. Through my reading I found that it was possible to reverse dis-ease in the body by consuming raw vegan foods like sprouts and drinking lots of fresh juices, including super nourishing wheatgrass juice.
Once I was well, I wanted to help everyone else who I saw needlessly suffering from ailments that a diet of plant foods might help alleviate. I had just left Berkeley and wasn’t looking forward to taking off from home again to go to school to learn how to help. I never went to an accredited culinary school like the CIA, instead I attended Living Light Culinary Institute’s very first class held in 1998 by Terri Zacanti and her best friend Cherie Soria, The Mother of Gourmet Raw Vegan Foods. One class with these ladies and I was hooked.
I quickly figured out a way to travel with them as an apprentice and then later as a staff chef and an instructor. My actual title at the school in the early days was “Goddess Can Do It All”-I was well trained and guided by these two women as well as our other staff members and the global student body. Many of our students were highly accomplished chefs who were attending school to learn the new repertoire of raw vegan food preparation. I was soaked in culinary knowledge and cultural learnings. With Living Light I traveled and worked at hot spring retreat centers on the coast of California and up into Oregon, held awesome events on the islands of Jamaica and Hawaii, explored the beaches of Tulum in the Mexican Riviera and held amazing classes in Costa Rica. I ended up teaching and traveling with Living Light Culinary Institute for many years and just recently (2020) retired as the Director.
“I got the pleasure of getting to know and work alongside Kari during my time in Living Light’s kitchens. She was always so meticulous and creative in her work, giving great care and attention to every detail in every dish. Her wonderfully delicious creations in Super Natural Foods Company are a complete reflection of this.”
– Aoife Carroll, Flourish Cuisine
Growing Up
I consider my upbringing a study in hospitality and farm fresh food preparation. I grew up watching my dad plant and harvest a lot of our food from the garden-as well raising rabbits and chickens for our meat and eggs. We also had horses, goats, cats, dogs, a dove and a pet rat on our little family oasis in Carmel Valley, California.
My mom was a lucky and devoted stay-at home mom and worked caring for us kids and also processing the garden bounty for saving in the pantry or the freezer. She created and cooked all of our daily meals. She rarely let me or my sisters help her in her “one butt kitchen”, although she sometimes let my sister Lisa bake because she was meticulous and measured everything correctly. A great lesson I learned at an early age is that I do not like measuring ingredients and will do it to learn a recipe or technique for practice but not as a personal routine. The kitchen duties my mom did share were taking the compost out to the chickens or to the garden and setting and clearing the table. She also had us wash and dry the dishes after dinner by hand-a practice I continue to be fond of today and use as a form of meditation. I also learned to always leave the kitchen cleaner than how you found it.
My mom’s parents were from the Dust Bowl generation and came out West to support the agricultural movement in the Salinas Valley and find a better way of life for their family. They lived on the East Side in a small house with 6 children and a big yard full of food. My grandma was known by everybody for being a great cook and made prolific amounts of food-a lot of it fresh or put up from my grandpa’s garden and orchard. She cooked all the time for my mom and her siblings, and later for their children. The kitchen is where my grandma spent a lot of her day cleaning and preparing and serving and clearing and cleaning again and again. I was always amazed that she was still so, so, so happy and loving and kind.
My papa’s parents were from Lucca, Italy and came here to Castroville to grow artichokes and raise their family. They brought with them both the fresh and rich flavors of Tuscany and their deep knowledge of garden and animal tending to share with us. I can remember so clearly the smells and tastes of my Nonna’s cooking and how delicious it was and how much everybody enjoyed themselves around the table. She spent most of her day in the kitchen or at the table and she deeply ingrained in me that good food with family was a salve for most human hurts.
I feel blessed to have been steeped in the magic of food production and preparation all of my life and know it is my gift to share. #Blessed
“Her culinary skills are excellent, her teaching style is informative and nurturing and her energy is contagious. Kari has one of the finest palates that I know and is a master at leading your taste buds through a one of a kind culinary journey.”
– Kirsten Gum, Gourmet Raw Food Chef & Educator
My Genius
I use my culinary skills to disarm naysayers of plant based eating by preparing healthy plant foods that taste delicious. I see the good in everyone, everything and every situation and bring myself as a mirror for others to see their own true beauty. I help people see how we are more alike than different and can bring unity where there may have seemed to be division. I can get groups of people to join together to move forward on projects and to agree on agendas, such as implementing healthy food policies in schools and the workplace. I am a builder of programs and can make something great out of nothing.
I am an Empath and can feel others emotions and am able to connect well with most people because of this. I am also an Intuitive and can hear what foods will help people heal as well as how they need to be prepared and served for optimal health and assimilation. I often receive downloads while I am sleeping or in meditation of recipes that I am to bring to the Collective.
