Kari Bernardi
Chef & Owner Super Natural Foods Company, Super Natural Chef
Carmel, California -
When Kari was really young she believed I was going to be the President of California (yes, California) or a millionaire or a psychiatrist. When she was in middle school, she absolutely loved her Home Economics cooking instructor who was from Spain. He was flagrant and fun and brought recipes from his homeland to share and create with the class. She started preparing and sharing plant based foods when she entered the food and beverage/hospitality industry in Carmel when she was 15 years old. Kari considers her upbringing a study in hospitality and farm fresh food preparation. She grew up watching her dad plant and harvest a lot of food from the garden-as well raising rabbits and chickens. They also had horses, goats, cats, dogs, a dove and a pet rat on the little family oasis in Carmel Valley, California.
For over 30 years Kari has shared her love of plants and teaching expertise to help people thrive on a plant-based diet. She is most excited about spreading love and the opportunity to express her heart through sharing her gifts as a kind human being, a chef and an educator. Kari is a dedicated earth steward and in service to the Divine. She loves creating and sharing simple and delicious plant strong recipes. She is passionate about eliminating the suffering of animals and works to help reduce individual and global environmental impact of animal consumption by helping others find their way to eating more plants. Kari personally follows a Flexitarian diet and honors all people’s personal food choices.
Professionally, Kari is 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, shee 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, she 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. Kari 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, she 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. Their work together propelled a nationwide change in bringing more healthy offerings to the Institutions they served.
Kari 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.
