Interview with: Stacey Isaacs from Kitchen Of Youth and The Harvest Inn
When and why did you start your business?
I started Kitchen Of Youth many years ago. I’m a chef with a Master’s degree in Chinese Medicine. I heal people with food and herbs. As for The Harvest Inn, we bought it almost 2 years ago (2021).
What's your story?
I am the writer and creator of Kitchen Of Youth. I have had many careers. I’ve been a chef, a lawyer, and a writer/editor. I also have a Masters’s degree in Oriental Medicine/Herbs and a license in Acupuncture. Some people find this diversity interesting. Others just think I have the attention span of a gnat.
When I was done being a lawyer (yes, I got burned out), I fulfilled a long-time fantasy and went to cooking school. This was awesome! I was lucky enough, upon graduation, to work at Food Network as a cook and food stylist. I worked with Rachel Ray, Guy Fieri, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Mario Batalli, Cat Cora, and others. This was my dream come true. But, deep in my soul, I still had the calling to be a healer. I began cooking foods for people who had specific dietary needs.
Fast forward several years… I moved out of Manhattan and out to wine country. My husband and I bought The Harvest Inn on the North Fork of Long Island. I am now a board member of Slow Food East End, an organization that works toward making sure everyone has access to good clean food. I am currently working on a program to bring chefs into our east-end schools to show our school community how to access and use the wealth of healthy foods available to us.
What do you offer?
I love to cook delicious, chef-quality food that’s good for you and easy to prepare. As a chef, I insist on using only top-quality ingredients. By top-quality, I don’t necessarily mean expensive; I mean fresh, environmentally-friendly, great-tasting herbs, spices, meats, vegetables, etc. As an eastern medicine practitioner, I look at foods with an eye toward their healing properties and I combine the correct foods with the correct food herbs and Chinese herbs to create a unique system to heal you.
I began cooking foods for people who had specific dietary needs. I was a personal chef of sorts to people with cancer, gluten intolerance, Parkinson’s, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, arthritis, and many more conditions. I also advised, menu-planned, and cooked for people who wanted to lose weight and look and feel youthful and healthy. I have become an expert at healing through food.
What else do you want people to know?
I am also the author of The Chinese Medicine Cookbook. This is something I am very proud of — it teaches about the principals of principles of Chinese medicine and teaches how to heal yourself with food. It includes lots of my favorite recipes.
My husband and I bought The Harvest Inn in Peconic. Here, we entertain guests, serve a gourmet 3-course breakfast every morning (including healing juice shots), and live happily among the vineyards and farms.
