For Healthcare Providers & Nutritionists

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You give patients the guidance they need — a sodium limit, a diabetic-friendly menu, a

plan to manage GERD, cardiac, or metabolic risk. The hardest part isn’t understanding

the plan. It’s living it, meal after meal, without feeling deprived or overwhelmed.

That’s where I come in. I’m Chef Kel, a personal chef with a clinical nutrition background

and specialized culinary medicine training — I build real, satisfying meals around the

exact restrictions your patients have been given, cooked in their own kitchen, so the

guidance you provide actually makes it to the plate.

Twenty-five years in professional kitchens, including seven years at Corewell Health,

one of Michigan’s leading hospital systems, working within their nutritional and lifestyle

medicine program. That work gave me hands-on experience translating medically

prescribed diets — cardiac, renal, diabetic, oncology-support, fluid-restricted, and more

— into food patients actually want to eat.

I’ve paired that clinical experience with specialized culinary medicine training

through Tulane University’s Culinary Medicine program, and formal culinary

training at the Western Culinary Institute (a Le Cordon Bleu affiliate). It’s a combination

that’s still rare: real kitchen craft, matched with real fluency in the medical side of “food

as medicine.”

I believe a therapeutic diet shouldn’t feel like a punishment. Southern and

Mediterranean cooking, done from scratch, can be just as restorative as it is delicious —

the goal isn’t to strip flavor out of a patient’s life, it’s to rebuild dishes so they work with

a diagnosis instead of against it.

For a lot of patients, that shift changes whether they stick with a plan at all. Food that

tastes like comfort, not treatment, is food people actually keep eating.

Real adherence to sodium, fluid, acid, sugar, or fat restrictions — without it feeling

like deprivation

One less barrier between diagnosis and daily habit, especially for patients who

don’t cook, are fatigued, or simply don’t have the time or ability to learn a new way

of eating

Personalized menus built around each patient’s specific condition and

preferences, not a generic template

Ongoing adjustment as a patient’s needs, appetite, or treatment evolves — this

isn’t a one-time meal plan, it’s a relationship

Potentially HSA/FSA reimbursable — with a Letter of Medical Necessity from your office, my culinary medicine services may qualify for HSA/FSA reimbursement, giving patients another way to make this work financially

Discovery visit — I talk through the patient’s condition, restrictions, and food

preferences directly, so nothing gets lost in translation from the chart to the kitchen.

Custom menu & cook visit — I shop, cook from scratch in the patient’s own

kitchen, and leave it clean.

Ongoing adjustment — Menus evolve as the patient’s needs, appetite, and

progress change, built for the long term.

Acid reflux & GERD · Cardiac & heart-healthy diets · Diabetes & metabolic health ·

Weight management · Food allergies & intolerances · Cancer-supportive nutrition · Fluid

restrictions · Renal & other medically prescribed diets · General wellness & family

nutrition

(If a condition isn’t listed here, reach out — my clinical background covers a wide range

of medically prescribed diets.)

If you have a patient who could benefit, I’d love to talk. I’m happy to answer questions

about how this fits alongside your care plan, provide materials for your office, or set up a

quick call.

Chef Kel Johnson 912-712-2069 · chef@freshflavourspcs.com Serving Savannah &

the Lowcountry