Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Pollock
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am an LA native and was raised on health foods and organic produce in the 60’s and 70’s — long before it was a trend. Shortly after graduating UCLA I backpacked across Asia and landed in Tokyo. I fell in love with Japanese cuisine. When I returned to LA, I fell into a career in Marketing. But cooking (as a home chef) always brought me to my happy place.
Eventually the call of the kitchen was so strong I made a late in life career change to become a professional chef. I attended the Professional program at the New School of Cooking in Culver City, worked in a few restaurants, and started Sublime Cuisine. Prior to the pandemic I worked in client’s homes as a private chef, with some small event catering and recipe testing. These days I primarily work in my catering kitchen and cook weekly customized menus for clients or cater meals to be dropped off to local businesses.
I strongly believe that food is medicine!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I built up my business slowly and organically, learning on the job. The first challenge was when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and learned I’d be in treatment for nearly a year. I worked as long as I could until I was just too physically exhausted. I took an eight month break from work and unfortunately lost all my clients in this time. But less than one month later, the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so I probably would have lost most of my work engagements anyway.
Once I was strong enough to start work in the kitchen again, I established a weekly pop-up of themed meals, cooking in my small home kitchen in Santa Monica. This was in the height of the pandemic when most restaurants were shut down and people were sheltering at home. There was no traffic in LA and people drove from all over the city to pick up food from me.
That pop-up really made my pandemic experience positive and restorative. It gave me an opportunity to see friends & family & neighbors once a week so I didn’t feel too isolated. Also, it helped me work through the brain fog that is a longer-term effect of chemotherapy. Producing five- or six- course meals to go for 20-30 people takes a great deal of multi-tasking and organization, which is super challenging when your brain is in a constant fog! I had to use a lot of effort to focus, and as it turned out, it became a therapeutic exercise to diminish the brain fog. I would create detailed To Do lists, and check those lists five times to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. This meant the whole cooking process took longer, but that was OK because working from home, I could work odd hours if need be. Each week I noticed it became easier to focus, and it was taking less time to accomplish these meals.
Once the vaccine was introduced and business started opening up again, my pop-up business fell off and after about a year, I discontinued it. I considered a permanent pivot in the direction of pop-ups, which had become really popular. But inevitably I realized it wasn’t the right niche for me. I just love being a private chef and cooking therapeutic foods to help make people feel better.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Sublime Cuisine is my private chef and catering service, based in Santa Monica. I cook with love and it shines through in the food.
I have traveled extensively, picking up inspirations and recipes along the way. I explore dishes inspired by different countries, regions and cultures, elevating them through my own healthy, vegetable-centric interpretations. Organic ingredients are used whenever possible, as well as local and seasonal items.
My favorite specialty is home-style Japanese cuisine, but I also love to create healthy California food celebrating the bounty of incredible organic produce we have access to, here in Los Angeles. I can create special menus for Keto, paleo, whole30, low FODMAP, vegetarian, vegan, low fat, no/low sugar, anti-inflammatory and gluten-intolerant diets as well as and various cleanses. I’ve been conscious of the power of nutrition since childhood so that factors heavily into my cooking.
Another specialty of mine is the “Cancer Kitchen Boss” diet I created for myself when going through treatment for cancer in 2019. It’ is largely anti-inflammatory and includes anti-cancer superfoods and adaptogens.
What makes you happy?
Cooking for people who appreciate and enjoy my food makes me infinitely happy. It’s an act of service, which nourishes me.
Pricing:
- For private chef services, I charge a day rate plus reimbursement of food costs. This reflects a full day of cooking, plus menu planning, shopping, packing and labeling foods in client’s containers, and local delivery.
- For catering, pricing depends on the size of the event, menu, style of service (full service catering including service & clean up, or food drop off, etc.,) length of event, location and other factors
- Other services such as menu and recipe development or testing, private custom-crafted classes, are priced on a case-by-case basis.
Contact Info:
- Website: sublimecuisine.com (my old site is broken and in progress but probably won’t be fixed for a few months) (mysublimecuisine.com)
- Instagram: @mysublimecuisine
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leslie.pollock/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sublime-cuisine-santa-monica?osq=sublime+cuisine
Image Credits
Randall Michelson Photography, RMPix.com
main image, 4th image (of me holding plate)
Araya Doheny Photography, Arayaphoto.com
1st additional images
Naru Inui, NaruPhotography
6th, 7th & 8th additional image
