All About Me
Everything You Want to Know
Going Beyond Food
Although food is her “first love”, Chef Veera’s background and experiences go well beyond her love for food. With a Ph.D. focused on intercultural communication and years of experience teaching cultural intelligence and leadership classes while personally leading a rich and diverse team of faculty, staff and deans at Johnson & Wales University. Now, Chef Veera consults with individuals, hospitality organizations, and entrepreneurs on unconscious bias, cultural intelligence for service industries, and more. Her personal focus is on the intersection of food, wellness and leadership where she facilitates energizing, interactive workshops that use parallels between cooking/food and leadership/teamwork to help individuals and organizations secure personal and professional success in today’s diverse world.
Better Together
Chef Veera’s husband Joe, wanted to open a small retail business. When the burgeoning olive oil sector piqued his interest. Veera looked at him and said, “if you are going to do something like this, I’m going to do it with you”. Thus, a wonderful business partnership was formed. In their former lives, they both traveled the world and the country, and often went weeks without seeing each other – now, they get to work together in their retail store every day, divvying up the responsibilities of small business ownership between them, and giving Chef Veera the opportunity to pursue her first love – cooking.
Spread the Love
Chef Veera is adept at engaging customers to once again consider regularly cooking and entertaining at home. What gives her most joy in her Oil & Vinegar store is sharing ideas, flavors and recipes – she wants people to leave inspired by what they have heard and tasted, and then go home and cook. She is delighted to have returned to her first love – creating food! And In keeping with the tenets of Mediterranean Lifestyle, she believes that when you cook with love, and share the food with people you love, savoring every morsel, you nourish your body, and your mind and soul. So, try her recipes, and spread the love
My Story
I aim to inspire
Who is Chef Veera? Pretty simple really. Driven by a passion that borders on obsession that developed in me at a very young age I always knew I was going to be a chef. I remember when I was 8, I started cooking often at home (with adult supervision, of course).
CHEF VEERA ON CULTURE AND FOOD
A dynamic and engaging speaker, Chef Veera focuses on the intersection of food, wellness and leadership in her workshops and speaking engagements. One of her favorite exercises to demonstrate how biases impact our relationships Gaul will offer a bunch of peaches to her participants. “Can you tell them apart?” she’ll ask.
Next peaches are handed out, Participants are asked to “get to know” their peach, study it and then name it. “Almost 90% can find their particular peach back in a bunch,” she says. “It’s simply about taking an interest in each person and getting to know one another.” If you’ve ever walked into her store in Greenville SC, or sat in one of her classes, you know that’s what Veera does best.