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  • Did not grow up thinking I was going to be a chef that was never the plan.

  • But I have always been the kind of person who needs to like shove it in people's faces and be like, oh look what I can do.

  • But in a really nice way, meet Kathleen.

  • She's on a mission to make delicious food for every allergy and intolerance.

  • But with severe food allergies herself, she rarely tastes the food she makes, she's even allergic to flowers.

  • I mean, I generally eat once a day to try to minimize the amount of reactions that there could be.

  • My reactions can range from, you know, what one might consider mild so headache, um irritations all over your body to severe anaphylaxis near death.

  • I cook by sight.

  • I cook by sound.

  • I cook by smell.

  • I cook by really the science of it all.

  • I love making food that shouldn't exist.

  • And when it does, it knocks you off your feet and you go wait, you made this and you can't eat it.

  • I'm like, yeah, what's it taste like?

  • Tell me all about it for Catalina to cook certain foods safely.

  • She wears a respirator.

  • I think I've had to wear my respirator for about seven or eight years.

  • Now.

  • I make it look cool and look good, but it's really uncomfortable.

  • It's like having a death grip on your face.

  • And then sometimes when you're cooking it fogs up.

  • So like you can't really see what you're doing.

  • You're like, literally like when she'll wiping your own face.

  • It's really weird going to the shops can set off her allergies too, but a chef always needs ingredients.

  • So when you're at the grocery store, corn is everywhere, right?

  • The wax on produce is corn derived.

  • Even like the adhesive on the stickers that they use.

  • Usually corn drived.

  • It's in so many places that you literally cannot avoid it unless you buy a piece of land and never leave after acing her chef training and rewriting her French pastry exam to be top nine free.

  • Kalina launched Ray a platform to teach cooking for restricted diets.

  • There's like all these foods that people think can't exist because oh, you can't have this.

  • That's free from gluten, dairy, egg, peanut, blah, blah, blah, all the things.

  • And I'm like, yeah, watch me.

  • You know, if you're vegan, they're like, oh, and here's some wheat and some peanuts and some soy and they throw every allergen into almost every recipe and it's, I'm like, wait, what about people who are allergic to these things or can't have this or can't have that, right?

  • I will find all of these strange ways to bring back flavor and texture and experience when you thought you'd never have it again.

  • It includes the entire community.

  • No one gets left behind it.

  • One of the coolest cakes I ever made.

  • It's dubbed Candy Overload Cake.

  • A mom called and she said my daughter's turning 12 but because of her allergies, the kid had just never had a birthday cake.

  • And I said, ok, well, how about since it's her first cake and you know me go big or go home cookies, candies chocolates.

  • Um Anything that's safe marshmallows, all of it just all goes on top.

  • The dad brings the little girl to pick up her cake and I just slide it over it.

  • I'm like happy birthday and dad is on the verge of tears.

  • Her face was just so like that, that's mine.

  • You know, like you never forget that moment like helping kids have that first.

  • Something that everybody takes for granted.

  • Like it's not about being a chef.

  • It's about reinventing the world for people who cannot engage in it just because you have this wild fringe diagnosis does not mean you can't live, you're going to live.

  • You just gotta put in some elbow grease.

  • Like a lot of it.

  • Actually our store is live.

  • Use the link in the caption to grab your great big story merch and don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment.

  • Thanks.

  • Bye.

Did not grow up thinking I was going to be a chef that was never the plan.

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