Start here with Chef AJ
New to Chef AJ? Choose what interests you, or start with the joyful video and personal memories below.
Chef AJ is a plant-based chef, culinary instructor, author, speaker, and host of Chef AJ Live on YouTube and Healthy Living with Chef AJ. Her public work brings together cooking demonstrations, guest conversations, books, and practical recipes.
Her books
Her website features Unprocessed, The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss, Own Your Health with Glen Merzer, and Sweet Indulgence. Explore the current editions and details in Chef AJ’s own shop.
Explore her world
- Her story — Chef AJ’s own account of her journey, culinary work, and teaching.
- Recipes and cooking inspiration — discover her recipe index and current updates.
- Courses and Chef AJ & Friends — explore her learning opportunities and community.
- Her YouTube collection — newest public uploads first, with links to videos, live-stream replays, and Shorts.
- Our joyful scan video and Thanksgiving memory, plus Chef AJ and Charles’s hospitality — personal stories and photographs shared with gratitude.
Public work summarized from ChefAJ.com and her official biography, checked October 28, 2026. Personal recollections are Nathanael’s. External courses, books, and memberships have their own terms and may cost money.
Our 2023 memories
A few moments of encouragement, friendship, and hospitality. Select a photo to see it larger; the fuller stories continue below.
Celebrating Chef AJ
Good food. Shared laughter. A moment worth keeping.
Chef AJ, thank you for the joy, encouragement, and love of whole plant foods you have shared with me. This memory from TrueNorth Health Center in 2023 still makes me smile.
Nathanael & Chef AJ · A carotenoid-scan moment · Tap the video to play or pause.
Thank you, Chef AJ, for being part of this chapter of my flourishing journey. Here’s to nourishing food, human connection, and making room for joy.
Stay connected with Kitchen Monk™ & Flourishing Nursing™
KEEP THE JOY GOING · CHEF AJ’S OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Keep watching Chef AJ
Enjoy the recorded celebration below, then explore Chef AJ’s own uploads, newest first.
On YouTube, choose Play all to start at the newest available upload and continue through the collection. Use the playlist menu to choose another video; turn shuffle off to keep the order.
The collection opens on YouTube because its current player restricts playback on other websites. Continuous playback depends on YouTube, video availability, and your browser. YouTube updates the uploads list as new public videos become available.
Our vision: make nourishment visible — read Nathanael’s story
Our vision: make nourishment visible
“An ultimate goal of Flourishing Nursing™ and Kitchen Monk™ is to help everyone enjoy God-made whole plant foods so consistently that their nourishment is reflected in their carotenoid scores.
Thank you, Dr. Alan Goldhamer, for making the scanner available to help people learn about their carotenoid status. My hope is that more healthcare organizations and certified lifestyle medicine clinicians will explore carotenoid screening as a routine nutrition measure alongside traditional vital signs. That’s this lifestyle medicine nurse practitioner’s vision.”
Nathanael Elijah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, DipACLM
Skin carotenoid scores can help estimate carotenoid-rich fruit and vegetable intake. They do not measure overall health or prove someone’s complete dietary pattern; this vision is not a claim that carotenoid screening is an established vital sign. Read the research.
More about this memory
Watch: a joyful nutrition moment with Chef AJ
A memorable moment from 2023: Chef AJ joins me during a skin-carotenoid scan. My recorded reading from this chapter was 995—a personal encouragement in my commitment to nourishing food and a flourishing lifestyle.
Skin-carotenoid readings offer a window into carotenoid status; they do not measure every vitamin or mineral or establish overall health. This personal result illustrates my story, rather than proving the effect of any one food or lifestyle choice.
My favorite Thanksgiving ever
Nourishing food, generosity, friendship, and belonging made this my favorite Thanksgiving ever. Chef AJ’s hospitality continues to inspire the spirit of Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing.
Watch Nathanael with Chef AJ: Play the video · Chef AJ video feature · TrueNorth 2023 story and video.
The Book of the Lamp — Read free with Kindle Unlimited · Kindle eBook: $0.99 · Paperback: $5.75.
🍳 Flourishing Culinary Hero
🌟 A Special Shout-Out to Chef AJ
🪔 A lamp is not only carried by nurses.
📜 Status: “Flourishing Culinary Hero” is a proposed honorary title, pending Chef AJ’s acceptance.
KEEP THE JOY GOING · CHEF AJ’S OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Watch Chef AJ · Newest videos first
Explore her public uploads, cooking demonstrations, and guest conversations in one growing collection.
On YouTube, choose Play all to start at the newest available upload and continue through the collection. Use the playlist menu to choose another video; turn shuffle off to keep the order.
The collection opens on YouTube because its current player restricts playback on other websites. Continuous playback depends on YouTube, video availability, and your browser. YouTube updates the uploads list as new public videos become available.
📚 Books & Cookbooks
🌱 Unprocessed (2011; now also in a 10th Anniversary Edition). Chef AJ’s own story of healing with whole plant foods, with easy recipes from appetizers to desserts. Fully salt-, oil-, and sugar-free, per the author: every recipe is oil-free, salt-free, and refined-sugar-free.
Other books featured on Chef AJ’s official website include The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss, Own Your Health with Glen Merzer, and Sweet Indulgence. Our free meal plans never require buying a book. Explore her current books and updates.
🥗 Our Flourishing Culinary Hero
🥷 Florence Nightingale is remembered as the Lady with the Lamp, the one who walked the dark wards so no one would be forgotten. Some people carry that same spirit of care from a very different place. For me, Chef AJ is one of them: she carries it from the kitchen.
Chef AJ is a chef, author, and educator, not a nurse. Kitchen Monk would be honored to celebrate her as a Flourishing Culinary Hero (a proposed honorary title, pending her acceptance) and as one of the SHEroes who inspire this work, because of how faithfully she has shown up for people who are trying to heal, one plate and one conversation at a time. 🌿 She shares the culinary spotlight with Chief Flourishing Chef Robin Jeep — Our Flourishing Culinary SHERO and Chief Culinary Guardian. Her kitchen has been a lamp for so many, and her conversations helped light the way for me, too.
🏆 Honored by The Plantrician Project
In 2026, Chef AJ was honored as a recipient of The Plantrician Project’s Luminary Award, celebrated at the Power of the Plate conference in San Diego. It felt like the whole plant-based community finally said out loud what so many of us have known for years.
📲 Follow Chef AJ
All five are Chef AJ’s own public accounts, as listed on her YouTube channel and website (checked September 29, 2026).
🕯️ A Pause Before You Go
💌 Who has carried a lamp for you, even if they never had the title? Maybe today is a good day to thank them.
Thank you, Chef AJ. The light you share reaches farther than you know.
— Flourishing Nurse Ninja Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM
Founder, Kitchen Monk™
🧭 Where to next?
About this page: a personal thank-you from Nathanael. “Flourishing Culinary Hero” is a proposed honorary Kitchen Monk title, pending Chef AJ’s acceptance. It is an honorary title, not a professional license, clinical credential, or academic qualification, and it does not imply nursing status. Chef AJ is independent: she has not joined Kitchen Monk, does not teach our programs, and she and The Plantrician Project have not reviewed or endorsed this page. No payment is involved. Covers © their publishers and authors. Independent outside recommendations earn us no affiliate commissions or referral fees. Our founder’s own books are author products and may generate royalties. Outside books, courses, and services may charge fees. Educational information only, not medical advice. Last updated October 9, 2026.
📚 A 2023 Kitchen Monk memory with Chef AJ
Chef AJ remains one of the strongest culinary inspirations behind Kitchen Monk™. We recommend her books—including The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss—as practical resources for people exploring whole-food, plant-based eating. These resources are educational and are not a substitute for individualized medical care.
💜 Chef AJ, Bailey & a treasured 2023 memory
Chef AJ’s practical, compassionate approach to whole-food, plant-based living has deeply influenced Kitchen Monk™. These photographs document Nathanael’s personal experience and gratitude; they do not imply endorsement of Kitchen Monk™ by Chef AJ.
Chef AJ and Charles: hospitality and encouragement in 2023
At Thanksgiving 2023, Chef AJ welcomed me into her home. Her generosity reminded me of my mom: making room at the table and helping others feel cared for. Chef AJ embodies the spirit of nursing through nourishment, compassion, and hospitality. To me, she is a true shero. Her husband, Charles, is awesome too, and I deeply appreciate him.
The book-signing photograph is from September 2023, separately from Thanksgiving. See the books and her treasured inscriptions, dated September 29, 2023.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” 
