Hi, I’m Kristen Rasmussen Vasquez (she/her). the founder of rooted food.
Real food in the modern world. I’ve worked at the nexus of nutrition, sustainability, and taste for over 15 years. As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with extensive culinary, academic, research, and industry experience, I am uniquely poised to ignite change. I am an Adjunct Faculty member at UC Berkeley and Cal Poly Humboldt, past Adjunct Faculty at the Culinary Institute of America, and have consulted on environmental & culinary nutrition for numerous organizations from large-scale foodservice to tech start-ups. I like to get my hands dirty foraging, harvesting, and creating and am lucky to have experienced authentic traditional foods of many cultures, including during my time teaching study abroad courses on Aegean islands and living in magical Oaxaca, Mexico as a part-heritage trip for my partner and children/part-culinary journey for me. I also have a good amount of experience with Scandinavian food, the food of (some of) my ancestors, through work with the Nordic Food Lab and my “West Coast Nordic” pop-ups. I know I am truly privileged to be able to experience so many amazing people, places, and foods.
If it doesn’t taste good, people won’t eat it (something that is readily apparent with my two young children) and I sincerely believe that a key path to solving the climate crisis is through delicious, real foods in the context of our modern environment. Fortunately, foods that are good for the planet are usually the ones that are good for us. Phew! Let’s get started.
My work provides clarity on which foods to eat, creativity on how to prepare and serve them, and embraces cultural variation. I have a strong penchant for the wild, for fermentation, for biodiversity, and for plant-forward dishes from different cultures. In other words - Rooted Food.
food is neither sustainable nor nourishing if it’s not eaten.
My philosophy
plant-rich aka “fiber is the future”
If you focus on fiber you’ll automatically eat more vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fruit…voilà, a diet rich in plants! Switching to a plant-forward diet is a key lever to pull in reducing food’s environmental impact and improving health. Partially because our gut bacteria looooove fiber. Over 200,000 species of plants are edible to humans, which can be combined and prepared in limitless ways, so eating plant-forward is an exciting opportunity, not a challenge!
“Overlooked & Underloved”
We live in a world of excess, but when it comes to food, especially healthy sustainable food, nothing should go overlooked. Wild foods, biodiverse varieties, fish lower on the food chain, seaweeds, underrated cruciferous vegetables, and drought tolerant grains are all examples of foods that provide nutrients we don’t get enough of while being easier on the planet. Why not show them a little love and reap the benefits?
innovate Traditions
Many of the hippest “modern” food and food system trends - e.g. fermentation, regenerative agriculture, and reducing waste - are not new. We need to learn from the traditional foodways of our ancestors, while merging these ideals with modern scientific knowledge and adapting to our current food environment and lifestyle.
rooted in place & time
Foods that reflect seasons and locales will give back more - to the eater, the earth, and the community. By preparing and enjoying cuisine that tells a story, you’ll be left feeling full in the best way possible.