FROM COCO, WITH LOVE

It started in pieces: through movement, through observation, through learning how to pay attention.

Before the kitchen, there was a familial foundation in visual & performing arts. An early understanding of composition, rhythm, & expression—how something feels, not just how it looks. That way of seeing carried forward, eventually finding a home in food.

In the kitchen, on the phone with my grandmother, Doreen, I learned how to cook without measurements. How to listen.“What does it taste, look, or smell like?” “What does it need?”

The answers were never exact. They didn’t need to be.

That way of learning: through attention, adjustment, & trust became the throughline.

What began as food expanded into something more layered. Into beverage, wellness, travel, into gardening & urban agriculture, into writing, into the ways we care for ourselves & each other over time. Not as separate disciplines, but as parts of the same language.

I’ve come to understand my work as an ecosystem shaped by lived experience. The kitchen was simply an entry point, Doreen a conduit.

Through Err’body Eats, I solidified my commitment to community & being of service. Cook by Feel, I’ve explored food & beverage as a form of expression. Through Roots & Remedies, that expression extends into plant-based care & sharing daily practices. Future projects take shape through storytelling, connectivity, a return to visual arts, & movement across place.

Each one is distinct, but they are all guided by the same approach:

Pay attention.
Use what you have.
Trust what you know.

More recently, I’ve come to recognize color as its own form of guidance—something that shows up in what I’m drawn to, what I create, & how I understand what my body needs. It moves through everything, whether I name it or not.

This work is not about perfection or prescription.

It’s about building a relationship with yourself over time—through what you make, what you notice, & how you choose to care.