Welcome to my kitchen! Grab a seat at my table with coffee or tea and take whatever it is you need. I hope you’ll feed visit often to feed your belly and fuel your soul.
Here you’ll find gluten-less recipes made with REAL, WHOLE ingredients that are so good, my friends say they’re “secretly gluten free,” as well as thoughts and tips on intentional, sustainable living.
My innate passion for the culinary arts and belief that the ability to prepare our own nourishment creates happiness and healing, has led me to help others reimagine cooking as a method of self-care and discover what they’re truly hungry for, in the kitchen and beyond. When we try what we don’t know, we grow—and often discover something that’s unexpectedly delicious.
If you haven’t grabbed a copy of my cookbook Hungry for Harbor Country yet, you can do that here.
When we try what we don’t know, we grow—and often discover something that’s unexpectedly delicious.
– Lindsay Navama
Hungry for more? Here’s the multi-course version…
Born in Lake Tahoe, to a food-loving family, I developed her passion for all things culinary early on. By age six I was eating sushi, Moo Shoo Pork from our local Taiwanese restaurant and my flavor of choice at Baskin Robbins was Daiquiri Ice. I’m forever grateful to my parents for feeding me whatever they were cooking,. Their “no kid food necessary” approach helped develop my palate and encouraged me to explore a wide variety of foods and flavors. If I didn’t want what they were making for dinner, I could have Cheerios and that was that.
Besides food, I’ve always had a passion for writing and performing. After scooping up a degree in broadcast journalism from Arizona State University, I hightailed it to Hollywood (much to my parents chagrin) to become an actress and open a bakery. One sunny LA afternoon, my acting coach told me I “wasn’t skinny enough to be the hot skinny girl or fat enough to be the funny fat girl and that I should gain or lose 20 pounds (no joke).” Despite being 21 and quite impressionable, I resisted diving into a crazy eating disorder. You see, I’d already waged that war in college, and thankfully, through therapy, healed my relationship with food before moving to Tinseltown.
I continued to act and opened Cookies Couture, a custom bakery, that helped Angelenos design the cookies of their wildest dreams. Eventually, my love for food eclipsed my acting goals and I began focusing on building my culinary career, which has taken many shapes over time. From appearing as the resident chef on Simon Fuller’s, If I Can Dream, as culinary guest on KTLA and a host on Plum TV in Aspen, Colorado, to developing recipes for my favorite food brands and writing a cookbook, my heart sings when I’m cooking or discovering delicious foods.
In addition to gifting me the knowledge that my soul wasn’t hard enough for Hollywood, I can also thank LA for introducing me to my now husband David. Since food is my love language, when we discovered his gluten and dairy sensitivities, it inspired me to create allergy-friendly recipes, craveable enough for everyone to enjoy, including myself! If it tastes gluten-free, I don’t serve it or buy it! My dinner parties became “secretly gluten free” because the guest never knew what was missing.
During a transitional period for me, David suggested take on the role of director of sales for Destini, a technology company he founded to help people easily find specific food and beverage products, both locally and online. The position allowed me to connect with all my favorite brands and continually discover and try a vast majority of the natural products on the market. This helped me become an expert in knowing which gluten free and dairy free brands are worth it and which are just not definitely NOT! If a product isn’t #worthit, I’ll never recommend it, promise.
In 2014 we moved from L.A. to Chicago for work and in that season I wrote my first cookbook, Hungry for Harbor Country.
Now we’ve settled down in Malibu to explore a different coast and raise Stella in the warm California surf and sunshine.
