Meet Niki Connor

Today we’d like to introduce you to Niki Connor.

Hi Niki, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a certified Health & Nutrition Counselor and Professional Chef using my brand to help educate others on living a healthy and attainable lifestyle. Every item recommended is plant-based and something that I myself would use because I come from a place of honesty. Rather than attempt to teach my audience how to prepare complicated dishes with more expensive ingredients that I use for my chef jobs, I’ll show them how to prepare quick and easy meals that are also affordable with ingredients that can be sourced nationwide. I’m also honest about my personal journey to health and happiness to connect with my audience on a more authentic level. I was a full-time private chef after graduating culinary school but was unhappy with my work because I knew what I really wanted to do with my education and didn’t have the extra time to build my own business. I took a big risk by quitting full-time private chef work to work as a personal chef instead, but started receiving more work within only a few days of the career change.

With my formal health, nutrition and culinary education, background as a professional athlete, International upbringing, extensive travels and passion for improving the lives of others, my work ranges from cooking to prevent and fight diseases to working with Oscar-winning actors, musicians, models, professional athletes, Fortune 500 executives, tech CEO’s, royalty, etc. I work in different homes preparing dinners, catering small events and also preparing meals for people with specific health needs. I believe in the marriage of Eastern and Western medicine and using my knowledge and passion to help others live a healthy, preventative lifestyle for a better quality of life. I recently launched the first podcast/cooking show called ‘Laurel Canyon Kitchen’ which can be watched on my Holistic Chef Niki YouTube channel or listened to on any podcast platform.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Some assume that due to where I come from, the people I know, and the opportunities I have now, it must have been easy for me to get to where I am now, but that is far from the truth. I’ve been entirely on my own since my early 20’s and have gotten myself to where I am now through blood, sweat and tears. When you’re an artist of any sort, it doesn’t matter who you know, if you can’t prove to your clients that you’re good at what you do, they’re not going to hire you or buy what you’re selling. It’s actually more pressure to get referred to clients for job auditions because I have far less experience than the other chefs the clients worked with before and have to earn the position by letting my work speak for itself. It doesn’t matter who you are, who you know or what you look like, it’s the final result that gets you the job!

I was lost, broke and unsure of my life’s true calling during my mid-to-late 20’s and stumbled upon cooking completely by accident. It’s something that I fell in love with while I was dealing with severe anxiety and depression living in New York, I had recently graduated nutrition school after dropping out of University and started my business as a Health & Nutrition Counselor while simultaneously working as a Market Representative for a nutrition brand. But, I hadn’t felt a true passion for anything I was doing yet. I was living alone in what you could call a shoebox in lower Manhattan and decided to teach myself how to cook, but it just so happened that my taste buds have a great memory, so I began recreating dishes I ate at restaurants and the dishes I had grown up eating in Japan and traveling the world. I was recreating dishes with my own twist- “veganizing” them! When I saw how natural it was for me to create an array of flavors with no prior cooking experience and how calm and centered it made me feel, I realized that I needed to take my new passion seriously. My sister was an editor at the largest fashion magazine in the world at the time (she is now the global director for a prominent fashion designer), and she began taking meals and snacks I had prepared to her office. Her colleagues tried my creations and began contacting me to place orders along with their friends, so I partnered with a local delivery company to deliver eight different hummuses I had created with my custom herb and spice blends along with my healthy cookies to fashion magazines and Wall Street.

I was still struggling, had no business knowledge, and no real direction in life, but I was excited that I had finally found my passion and was determined to do something about it. I was accepted into culinary school in New York, but the class schedule would make it nearly impossible for me to be able to afford to live there, have a job and go to school full time, so I moved back to LA and got a job as an assistant at a commercial production company while simultaneously working locally and remotely as a Health & Nutrition Counselor to save money for school. Within months, I had moved from my Aunt’s basement to a new apartment, was accepted into another culinary school and moved to the Bay Area to follow my culinary dreams. I was getting more confident in my work as school progressed, so I took personal chef jobs in San Francisco, Atherton, Mill Valley and Oakland Hills. The problem was that I didn’t have a car after living in New York, so I had to walk to and from school and take the subway, bus or Uber to and from work until I could rent a car longer term. Luckily the walk wasn’t far and I felt safe since I was carrying my knife kit with me!

After graduating culinary school, the President of my school offered me a position to do a cooking demo at the global headquarters of a huge food company, and while I was cooking on stage I was reminded of how comfortable I felt being on stage and in front of the camera in spite of being an introvert who is actually quite shy unless provoked. It was right then and there that I realized I needed to move back to LA and pursue my culinary career with a connection to entertainment. I moved back to LA and decided to sublet an apartment in Venice Beach until I figured things out. Unfortunately, the apartment had bedbugs, so that didn’t last long! I was referred to a client and their family and they decided to make my job audition especially stressful by putting me up against their Italian chef with 20+ years of experience. I was instructed to create better Italian dishes than this chef and would receive feedback at the end to determine whether or not I had the job. Well, I got the job! I enjoyed cooking for the family until they left the country for a season, so I got referred to other clients in LA and worked my way up from there.

I was connected to jobs through referrals, but every time I arrived on location for the first time, I would be judged based on my appearance, my age and the fact that no matter what I wore or how much of a nerd I truly am, it was assumed that I must be some sort of bimbo and not a real chef. That made me determined to prove people wrong every time by working hard, being professional, never mixing my business with my personal life and letting my work speak for itself while staying hidden in the kitchen as much as possible. Whenever there were inappropriate comments that made me uncomfortable, I would no longer feel safe in my workplace and would leave, finding a better replacement position soon after. Once I started getting referred to bigger clients and hired for more Hollywood events, my networking started paying off and I put together a small team of people to help me build my brand because I was absolutely exhausted trying to figure out how to do it all by myself while working all the time.

The work I do as a personal chef is completely different than the brand I’m developing as Holistic Chef Niki, when I’m at a chef job I wear a chef’s uniform, cook at a five star level within the client’s budget, and don’t speak unless I’m spoke to. When I’m hosting my podcast/cooking show ‘Laurel Canyon Kitchen’ or educating others on healthy cooking and living a healthy lifestyle, I’m in jeans and a t-shirt and sharing recipes that are far simpler than what I create for work to encourage everyone to join me in the kitchen. Nothing in my life has come easy and I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve created, but that makes the opportunities that come my way far more rewarding knowing I wouldn’t be where I am now if I had listened to what others thought was best for me and didn’t listen to my heart and follow my passion.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I feel that my true calling in life is to help others heal themselves through the mind-body-soul connection of practicing self-love by living a healthy lifestyle with self-awareness and culinary nutrition knowledge.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I gave up trying to fit in a long time ago and suggest that others do the same. It’s not about what others think of you or what will get you the most attention, it’s about doing what makes your soul happy and inspires you to live a healthier, happier life following your dream. I practice what I preach, which is why I’m so emotionally connected to what I do. When you feel you can be your best self and something brings you peace and happiness, that’s when you know you are in the right career and surrounded by the right people.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://holisticchefniki.com, http://laurelcanyonkitchen.com
• Instagram: @HolisticChefNiki, @LaurelCanyonKitchen
• Twitter: @HolisticNiki
• Youtube: http://Youtube.com/c/HolisticChefNiki
• Other: TikTok: @holisticchefniki, @laurelcanyonkitchen