Welcome! I’m Denise Macuk, aka Chef Denise
If you want to know what to eat when you’re traveling and where to eat it, we’ll be great friends. And if you want recipes to cook some of those delicious dishes when you get home, well then, we’ll really get along. Here are a few things you may want to know about me.
I’m a Chef
I have studied many international cuisines and received my culinary degree in 2004. The following year, I started one of Los Angeles’ first healthy meal services, California Chef. There, I developed thousands of recipes to help people lose weight and improve their health with deliciously prepared meals that were personalized for each client.
Luckily, I loved cooking because satisfying thousands of clients entailed a lot of hard work and long days. I cooked all kinds of cuisines, including French, Greek, Italian, Mediterranean, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and many more to please some of LA’s biggest celebrities. Among them was Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, for whom I was a chef for over 10 years.
I’m a Foodie Traveler
My husband Michael and I share a passion for foodie travel. Almost everywhere we go, discovering the traditional dishes and local cuisine is at the top of our list (although, sure, sometimes visiting family comes first).
We spent six months in Europe the year before we were married and returned home with lots of new recipes and culinary inspiration. We have returned many, many times to our favorite continent since then, and we still continue to discover new gastronomic experiences.
I also love the diverse cuisines that North America offers. I’ve driven across the U.S. nine times and have taken many more extensive road trips, including numerous stays throughout Canada and Mexico. Exploring the continent from coast to coast and top to bottom to find the most fantastic flavors is always immensely rewarding.
I’m a Food Travel Blogger
On my blog, Chef Denise, I share the traditional foods, local eateries, and foodie places to stay within some of the world’s best travel destinations.
From famous foods to cheap eats, from Michelin-starred restaurants to street foods and hidden gems, if you want to explore the world through food, stop at Chef Denise before your vacation!
Then, when you return home and have a hankering for any of the yummy dishes you loved, come back and find a recipe to satisfy your craving.
Want to know more? Read my backstory . . .
my secrets revealed
A chef’s life is naturally filled with secrets. Secret recipes, ingredients, places, and, like everyone, personal stories so dear and cherished—or sometimes so painful—that they are never told. The reason I kept my sister Christine’s death a secret was because of the latter. I wasn’t consciously keeping it a secret. I just couldn’t tell anyone without an abundance of tears and pain, so I didn’t. It usually takes a couple years of friendship for me to tell someone that I once had a sister. In fact, some friends are probably finding out right now (sorry).
The thing is, this loss changed me to my core, and greatly influenced the rest of my entire life. It is such a big part of who I am, yet it’s the part I always left out. So, in the interest of full disclosure, this is where I am starting my story.
My sister Christine died unexpectedly in an apartment fire when she rented a room as a San Diego State student. Telling my parents over the phone about our loss was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do, and still haunts me. My husband Mike was my boyfriend then, and the first thing I said to him upon learning of Christine’s death was “Don’t leave me,” and he didn’t.
Shortly after Christine’s death, I left my corporate job, and Mike and I took off on a sabbatical to Europe to heal. I loved exploring new places and hoped that doing something I loved would help keep me interested in life. Traveling to different countries also opened up a whole new world of food. We were on a budget, so we cooked most of our own meals. I found that I could recreate many of my favorite newly discovered dishes myself, without recipes. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this creative cooking outlet was very therapeutic and good for my soul. So, after six months, when we ran out of money, we returned to the states, engaged (I asked him), and I went back to my corporate job.
After pouring myself into my work, I became the Vice President of Sales & Marketing—and an insomniac. Cooking became my therapy. I would wake up in the middle of the night and start cooking until it was time to go to work. Then, I’d have a 4-course lunch ready to bring to the employees at work. The employees loved it! Since I wasn’t sleeping much anyway, I decided to go to culinary school at night—just for fun. Shortly after graduation, I quit my high-paying corporate job to start California Chef and do something I loved.
California Chef quickly grew into a leading healthy meal prep service in Los Angeles. I developed thousands of recipes (I’ve kept them secret, of course) that have helped thousands of people lose weight and improve their health. I’ve had the pleasure of cooking for top-name celebrities such as Sean Astin, Billy Crystal, and Cher, and I was a chef for Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson for over 10 years.
Shortly after returning from an East Coast trip in 2018, another life-altering event occurred: The Woolsey Fire. Mike and I were evacuated for a month, lived out of paper bags, and stayed with a very generous friend. Before we learned that our house had miraculously survived, we spent days trying to figure out what we would do if it turned out that it was gone. In examining my life, I realized how much I’ve kept secret, how much I had to share, how sharing could actually help others, and how much I wanted to do it. So, here it goes!
