Pamela Salzman

This beauty is a mother of three who teaches multiple cooking classes a week and runs an incredible healthy recipe food blog. Every single one of her recipes has depth of flavor but simple in form--just how we like it! Her philosophy? Eat Well … Live Well … Be well. Yes ma'am!

Pamela Salzman got motivated to start teaching cooking classes & share her recipes online to encourage and inspire people to get back in the kitchen and cook real food. She's on a mission to change the Standard America Diet (literally S.A.D., for short)--processed, refined, nutritionally lacking food that works against our bodies’ natural processes.

Pamela comes from the same viewpoint as us: there is a problem with the fact that our food has changed dramatically in the last hundred years, but our physiological bodies have not. It's important to get back into the kitchen and cook our own food and use the best, real ingredients as much as possible.

Pamela's Dietary Principles:

• Eat as many whole foods as possible. • Eat a wide variety of food. • Eat as much organic food as you can afford or find. • Cook as much as possible to control what goes into your food and to impart your loving energy into the food you serve. • Eat seasonally. • Shop locally. • Listen to your body.

We love Pamela's understanding of nutrition, and more importantly how to implement it in a family kitchen. As she says, the best thing you can do for your kids is set a good example with your own eating habits and keep exposing them to whole foods. Her recipes are so delicious, we really count on her when we want a nutritious and scrumptious meal.

Be sure to reference her website for your upcoming cooking sessions! We made three super awesome recipes with her in her amazing home kitchen ((Cauliflower Crust Pizza //  Fish in Parchment // Almond-Butter Millet Blondies)), which are sure to make you glow.

HOW THEY GLOW QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME: Pamela Salzman

NICKNAME: My dad still calls me Pamelina, but I’m Pamela to everyone else.

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP: Stony Brook, Long Island

WHEN YOU ARE EATING HEALTHY, WHAT IS A TYPICAL… 

BREAKFAST: Hot millet porridge with almond milk, raw cacao nibs and coconut or gluten-free toast with avocado

LUNCH: Whatever I just taught in a cooking class or a quick veggie and brown rice stir-fry or quinoa salad

DINNER: Slow-roasted wild salmon, a baked sweet potato and sautéed greens with lots of garlic

SNACK: Dates and walnuts; dehydrated apple slices; baked chips and homemade guacamole; popcorn popped in coconut oil

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE SPOTS/RESTAURANTS TO EAT HEALTHY? I can find healthful food in a lot of restaurants, but I love Axe in Venice, Real Food Daily and Nobu in LA, The Source Café in Hermosa Beach

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INDULGENCE? Flourless chocolate cake with or without whipped cream or a gigantic bowl of pasta

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PLACES/RESTAURANTS TO INDULGE? Gjelina, Mozza

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR LAST MEAL ON EARTH? I would go to Italy to some little village where the basil and tomatoes are insane, the mozzarella and bread are homemade, and the olive oil was just pressed. Give me that and a glass of wine and I’m good to go.

WHAT IS THE BEST DISH YOU COOK/ YOUR FAVORITE RECIPE? My best dish is debatable, but my favorite recipes are really the simplest when I can get really fresh, just picked produce. My husband thinks I make the best fruit pies. His favorites are apple or peach. But I could eat my kale salad with citrus dressing or fish tacos every day. 

WHERE DO YOU GROCERY SHOP IN LA? Whole Foods, GROW in Manhattan Beach, Trader Joe’s and any farmer’s market. If I lived on the Westside, I’d shop at the Co-Op in Santa Monica.

WHAT IS YOUR FITNESS REGIME? (HOW OFTEN & WHAT DO YOU DO) Honestly, I don’t like to exercise. I do it because it’s an important part of being healthy, but I don’t enjoy it! I do yoga, barre class, workout on an elliptical machine, and take walks at the beach. If I’m lucky, I do something 3-4 days/week.

WHAT IS YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE? (PRODUCTS, FACIALS, ETC) I am really basic. I wash my face every single night, usually with Marie Veronique Cleanser. I use Shiva Rose’s Rose Face Oil in the morning and straight Vitamin E oil at night. I get a facial from Tanya at Dr. Shamban’s office twice/year. I wish I had time to go more frequently. Once in a while, I’ll make a paste of brown sugar and coconut oil and give myself a little body scrub before a shower. So nice.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE NATURAL MAKEUP/ BEAUTY PRODUCTS? Tarte cheek stain and Marie Veronique tinted SPF

IF YOU WERE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND, WHAT 3 PRODUCTS WOULD YOU TAKE WITH YOU? 

1. Sunscreen

2. Coconut Oil

3. Toothbrush

WHAT PROFESSIONAL BEAUTY/FITNESS/HEALTH GURUS DO YOU SWEAR BY? I listen to my own body.  That’s all I need to know.

TOP 3 FAVORITE SONGS? Too hard!

1. "Your Song" by Elton John

2. "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" by Bruce Springsteen

3. "Harvest Moon" by Neil Young ... but tomorrow it might be something by Nirvana, Lady Gaga, or Pitbull!

MOST LIFE-CHANGING BOOK? The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

WHAT IS THE BEST GIFT YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED? It sounds cliché, but nothing compares to my three babies.

DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY. Wake up with my hubby anytime after 6:00 am. Yoga. Healthful, veggie food all day. Organize a drawer somewhere in my house, because I love organizing and never have time to do it. Meditate, read a good book, learn something new.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE BEAUTY TIP/SECRET? Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen! That and I rub Vitamin E oil on my face every night (but be careful, it’ll stain your sheets.)

WHAT MAKES YOU GLOW? The love I get from my husband and my kids makes me glow more than anything else! But I also glow when I’m rested, well-nourished and when I am keeping true to my authentic self.

Photography by: Sasha Young