Chef Maria Hines is a James Beard Award-winner and author of Peak Nutrition, a book all about the food we can use to fuel our bodies for outdoor adventures.
Maria Hines is an award-winning chef and an avid rock climber and adventurer. In 2005 Maria was named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs, and she’s competed on TV shows like Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef America. But when Maria is on the trail for an early morning hike or climb, she doesn’t have time to bring a five course meal. Instead, she’s figured out a way to bring healthy, convenient, and delicious foods with her on her outdoor adventures. Maria shares recipes in her cookbook, Peak Nutrition, and she’s also the star of REI’s Youtube Series, Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines.
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Shelby Stanger: When you're planning an adventure, you can't help but think of what you're going to eat, at least I can't, you might be thinking about that smoothie that's going to fuel your climb or what snacks you'll throw in your pack to fill you up without weighing you down. And then of course, there's the celebratory meal afterwards, what can you eat that's going to taste good, but also help your body recover? Foodie adventurer and award-winning chef Maria Hines takes all of this into account when she's planning meals for her adventures, she wants to help you do the same. I'm Shelby Stanger. And this is Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Shelby Stanger: Chef Maria Hines is a James Beard Award winner, which is kind of like winning an Oscar in the food world. Her Seattle restaurant Tilth was known for its thoughtful, local and certified organic cuisine. In 2005, Maria was named one of Food & Wine magazine's 10 best new chefs and she's competed on TV shows like Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef America. She even wrote and published a cookbook in 2020 called Peak Nutrition, it's all about the food we use to fill our bodies for outdoor adventures. These days, Maria is a consultant, a speaker, nutrition coach, and she's the star of REI's YouTube series, Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines. Outside of her professional life, Maria's also a passionate climber and outdoor enthusiast. For her, movement is medicine, whether that's in a bustling kitchen or scrambling up rock walls in the great outdoors.
Shelby Stanger: Maria Hines, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Maria Hines: Hey, thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.
Shelby Stanger: I had no idea you were from San Diego and that's where you learned to cook. I was just really curious, how did you first fall in love with cooking?
Maria Hines: I've always been very creative and I wanted to do something in the artistic world. And quite honestly, Shelby, I couldn't sit in a chair in school to save my life. So, I'm just not good with orthodox learning and I move through the world very viscerally. So, finding in something that allowed me to channel that really felt like a gift. And to be able to find that at 16 years old, because entry level in a kitchen, you don't need any experience. I mean, it's kind of... The entry level can be a very low level.
Shelby Stanger: So, you're 16 and got your first kitchen job.
Maria Hines: Yeah.
Shelby Stanger: Where did you work?
Maria Hines: Carlos Murphy's right behind North County Fair in Escondido.
Shelby Stanger: That's amazing.
Maria Hines: Yeah, it was an Irish-Mexican bar and grill. 500-
Shelby Stanger: You don't have many of those around.
Maria Hines: No, no, no. We're doing 500 covers a night and super, super busy, busy, busy place. So, it was a good place to just earn my chops in the realm of high-volume cooking.
Shelby Stanger: I listened somewhere you talked about one of your first, you were getting paid to peel carrots and you were like, "This is so cool."
Maria Hines: That was there. That was in Carlos Murphy's. That was probably the first couple of days of working. And it was that, you know, Shelby, how you just have moments in your life where you realize that you are exactly where you're supposed to be in that moment in time? And if you embrace that, it will really propel you forward. And that was one of those moments. That was the first moment that I was just super stoked to be cooking and in a kitchen and realizing that this really resonates, what's happening right now. All of your senses firing off all at once. So, it's just like all the smells that you're smelling, you can smell bones roasting in the oven when they're about ready to come out and you can hear a pot hissing and the water rolling, so you know when water's coming up to a boil and all of those things. You're relying on all of that to be able to do your job.
Maria Hines: You go in flow mode and you know all about flow mode being a surfer, and that's where I live. I look for flow in anything that I'm doing, because it's when I'm the most present. It's like a meditative practice, because, I mean, heaven forbid, you tack me down for more than three minutes to do an actual mindfulness meditation, it's quite difficult, but you have me in a situation where I'm cooking in a intense environment or hanging off the side of a cliff in Yosemite Valley and it's got your attention.
Shelby Stanger: How did you get good? And what job did you have where you're like, "Oh, this is how you really cook."
Maria Hines: I would say I got good by being a real hard worker and just getting my reps in. I knew that this is what I wanted to do. So, I went to Mesa Community College there in Clairemont and received an associate's degree in culinary arts with the intention of going to get a bachelor's degree in nutrition. But I just was so in love with being in the kitchen, being a part of the action and just actually doing it. So, I ditched out after I got my associate's degree and all I did was I just worked. I was obsessed.
Shelby Stanger: I love that. You seem to have a lot of energy, but also focus. So, you started putting in reps, what happened next?
Maria Hines: Well from San Diego, I had gotten to a point where I was in my late 20s and my next position in San Diego would have been the executive chef of one of the top restaurants there, when I realized that I wanted more and I needed to learn more and I needed to grow still and it was time to move to another city so I could do that.
Maria Hines: So, before I moved up to Seattle, I went to France and I basically did a [foreign language 00:06:45] for three months, which basically you're working for free, working 60 hours a week in trade for room and board. So, that was a incredible experience. Was cooking at-
Shelby Stanger: At a French restaurant?
Maria Hines: Yes, it was a Michelin star-rated restaurant at the foothills of the French Alps in the Savoie region in this little town called Chambéry. And I didn't speak a lick of French. So, it made it very challenging, but fortunately I had been cooking for nine years already, so I could look and see what was going on and just mimic it. Because at the end of the day, it's like when you break down a beef tenderloin, you break it down the same way, whether you're in France or whether you're in San Diego. So, it was a incredible experience, but the language barrier took a little bit of getting used to, I guess.
Shelby Stanger: Being in France opened Maria's eyes to new culinary possibilities. In San Diego, an ingredients life started when it arrived in the kitchen, it was less about where the food came from and more about making it taste good. But she learned in France that so much happens before the food even gets into her hands. During her stage, she discovered the joys of using local organic ingredients in her cooking. When did you first get excited and start incorporating local and organic food in your practice?
Maria Hines: I really got deep into it when I cooked in France. The chef's sister had a little garden and she would come in the door with this big, beautiful wicker basket every day with these European vegetables that I'd never even seen or heard of before, like cardoon and salsify and crosne. It was amazing, it was just like when you have food that it's that fresh, that it just got pulled out of the ground and you, as the cook, get to work with it right then. There's a difference in the texture, it has more snap. It has more of that water content. It has more flavor to it. It has more brightness. And it's just like you're working with a completely different product than when you have something that's been trucked to you.
Maria Hines: So, it really kind of started there. And I had this map of France and I would bring it into the kitchen and I would hold up whatever the products were, if it was fish or if it was venison that we were working with or whatever. And I would tell the chef, I'd show him the map, I'd put it on the kitchen table and I'd hold up, let's say, the venison loin and I'd like, "Where is this from?" And point to the map. And he'd show me where it was from. And I'd make a little mark and I'd go home at night and I would make this little flag and I'd put like, okay, it's from here. In Bresse, this chicken is coming from the area of Bresse in France. And then, the venison loin is coming here in the Savoie region. And I'd make these little pins, so I could look at this map and I could see where all the cheeses were from and where the proteins were, whatever it was, the fish or the venison and certain vegetables.
Maria Hines: So, that's where I really was just loved knowing where my food came from and realizing that when you're using sustainable, organic practices and it's coming locally, that the flavor is just so incredible. So, it really started there.
Shelby Stanger: After her time in France, Maria moved to Seattle. There, she could have more access to the ingredients she dreamed of, seafood coming in from the nearby coast, agriculture not too far from the city, and opportunities to forage for mushrooms, berries, and wild greens. This kind of access to fresh ingredients is the stuff that chefs dream about. So, you left France, you headed to Seattle. How did you bring what you learned in France back to Seattle with you?
Maria Hines: When I came up to Seattle and started cooking and hooking into the farmers' markets and buying from the farmers. And there's a lot of those relationships that were developed out here that have been really incredible and they're like family to me. And it was just a process of going out on their land. They'd be like, "Well, come up, check it out." And all the education would happen like George from Skagit River Ranch would get out his refractometer and get a little bit of the soil and he would tell me about it and talk about the amount of work he puts into just making the soil perfect for the grass and the clover and the marigolds for his chickens and for his cattle. And how all of that affects the food that we eat when that animal is harvested and we're having that steak, then that's what we're ingesting. And it's just a beautiful full circle. As opposed to a feedlot subsidized corn sprayed with pesticides. Then, that's what you're putting in your body. And that's what you're eating. I learned all that from the farmers.
Shelby Stanger: That's so cool that you went out to the farms. It's perfect, because you love spending time outside. So, how did you get so into nature?
Maria Hines: Moving up to Seattle, it is so beautiful and so green up here. I never seen anything like it. I moved up here sight unseen and I'd read a lot about it in culinary trade magazines. There was a lot going on. There's a lot of women chefs up here and there was just this bounty of food.
Shelby Stanger: And just to being in trees, whenever I go to just even Northern California and beyond, there's something about trees for me, that does it.
Maria Hines: Oh, Shelby, absolutely. And now I live literally in the trees.
Shelby Stanger: You got this little cabin in, is it called Mazama? How do I say this town?
Maria Hines: Yeah. So Mazama is the little town of 225 people, it's right there nestled at the foothills of the North Cascades. It's right at the mouth of the valley, the Methow Valley. So, we're living on the land of the Methow people in that area. There's incredible rock climbing and there's mountain biking and there's paddle boarding and there's trail running.
Shelby Stanger: So, with rock climbing, you said you discovered that when you went to Seattle?
Maria Hines: Yeah. So, I was working at a restaurant and my sous-chef was like, "Hey, you should go to the Vertical World climbing gym with me and my boyfriend, and check out rock climbing." And went to the climbing gym and just it clicked. It's that same thing, that same energy where-
Shelby Stanger: Flow.
Maria Hines: ... it's very much like... Yeah, it's flow, it's absolutely flow. And your mind and your body need to be connected in order to get to the top of the route and that puzzle process of, okay, left hand here, right hand there and orienting your body in such a way that you can do it as gracefully and elegant and lightly as you can, even though it's a very physically demanding activity is the most beautiful thing that you can do with your time, I think. I mean, it's quite selfish, but it's such a beautiful process.
Shelby Stanger: Self-love is not selfish. That's what one of our best podcast guests told me. So, when did you first rock climbed outside? And what was that like?
Maria Hines: Probably month or two after I climbed in the gym and, oh my goodness, Shelby. Okay, so North Bend is right outside of Seattle. And we drove up there and we started walking through the woods and maybe 15-minute walk up. And you're just looking at a beautiful forest full of evergreens and the ground cover of these beautiful sword ferns. And then you walk 10, 15 minutes, and then you see a little crag, you see a rock face, and there's all these climbers. And I was just like, "This is a thing? People do this? This is the coolest thing ever." I was exhilarated. It was incredible.
Shelby Stanger: Once Maria started climbing outside, she couldn't stop. She went on trips with friends. She became familiar with routes in her area. And she even asked her buddy to build a small climbing wall at her house in Mazama. The rush of getting outside and challenging herself physically suited her energetic personality. Climbing also got her thinking even more about her first love, food, and how she could nourish her body to fuel her adventures. When we come back, Maria talks about the specifics of her diet and what she eats when she's out climbing. She also talks about her YouTube series with REI, Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines.
Shelby Stanger: Maria's love of outdoor adventure and rock climbing was connected to her passion for food and local ingredients. The land provided her places to explore, and it also produced beautiful food for her to eat. As Maria became a more avid climber and hiker, she realized there wasn't a cookbook out there for foodie adventurers like her. So, she had the wild idea to write one herself. Maria's book, Peak Nutrition: Smart Fuel for Outdoor Adventure, came out in 2020. It features delicious recipes for mountain athletes with insight into human physiology, how nutrition relates to stress and so much more. Let's talk about the book Peak Nutrition. How did you get the idea for it?
Maria Hines: I decided, "Okay, I got to write this book, because it doesn't exist." There was no book out there that was written for the outdoor mountain athlete. So, it's all of those things, I started go, okay, I want to keep doing this stuff. How am I going to keep doing? I'm not 20 anymore. So, how do we make this happen? So, I teamed up with my personal trainer, Mercedes Pollmeier. We were out bouldering one day and I was like, "Hey, this book doesn't exist. There's no sports nutrition cookbook for the mountain athlete. Let's write this thing. I'll do all the recipes for it. Because I'm already eating clean and I'm dialing in recipes for me personally for when I am having multi-day events in the back country. And let's share this knowledge and use this as a way to combine our skillsets to give back to the outdoor community that has enriched our lives and given us so much."
Maria Hines: And the book came out last year and it's the first book from Mountaineers Publishing to ever go into every REI unit in the United States. So, we're psyched on that. And it won the National Outdoor Book Award. It sounds like a really boring category to win an award in. But given that we were trying to write a comprehensive book on sports nutrition, we were pretty psyched on it, because we put our hearts into that piece.
Maria Hines: And our goal was to feel like you could engage with it. There isn't a bunch of rules that you need to follow and dos and don'ts, just like a few simple things. Just like food good for you and don't worry about it and listen to your body, because all of our bodies are different. Our own physiology should be our guide in how we feed ourselves and what is providing energy for us and then what is taking energy away. That's kind of the philosophy with how I try and move through the world.
Shelby Stanger: This is a big question, but you have this giant love of food, giant love of nature, giant love of adventure. And you've figured out a way to combine them all. Tell me a little bit about how you've done it and your philosophy and just how they're all interconnected.
Maria Hines: Thank you. That's a great question. I'm trying to combine it all. That's the hope. Yeah.
Shelby Stanger: You are. You're doing it.
Maria Hines: Cooking, it's a way to be able to express myself and it's also a way to show love and to be in service to others. You're nourishing people with this food. So, if you came into my restaurant, at Tilth, it was the second restaurant in the United States to be certified organic through Oregon Tilth, and that's a big commitment right there. It's my guest who come in the door, because I want to feed you organic food, because I want to nourish you. And I want it to give back energy and I don't want it to take your energy away. So, there's that aspect of it.
Maria Hines: The other aspect about food that I love is that nutrition piece. So, I ended up, a few years ago, working on becoming a certified nutrition coach so I could learn more about how food can actually be medicine. So, now you're taking that nourishment, that caring for others to that next level and learning about how food can be medicine in order to live your fullest life. And when I'm in the mountains, that is the place that I love to move my body and exercise. Eating the right things when you're in those elements is a way to help increase your performance.
Shelby Stanger: Maria was the perfect person to write a book like Peak Nutrition. She's armed with a holistic understanding of food. And she's an experienced mountain athlete herself. The recipes in the book are tasty, convenient and nutrient-dense. Maria has nailed the balance between nutrition and flavorful food. She appreciates the science behind her body's energy consumption and the food we crave, but what does Maria actually eat to feel good and fuel her long days of climbing?
Maria Hines: I focus on eating lots of vegetables and protein. That's basically the focus of what I want to try and eat and a little bit of fruit. The reason why that works the best for my system and for a lot of people system is you're balancing out your blood sugar, because if you're eating too many simple carbohydrates like pastas or bread that have been refined or refined sugars, it hits your bloodstream right away. So, you immediately get that energy, but you crash just as quickly. And sometimes, when you crash, you actually crash below what your baseline was before you even put it in your mouth. So, that would be an example of something that takes away energy.
Maria Hines: So, I woke up this morning and before my mind said like, "Okay, give me that sugary pastry." I had a smoothie ready to go in the fridge. And my smoothie was chocolate, vegan protein powder with kale and with frozen berries, all mixed together. And it was there ready for me to go. So, you basically go through the strategy of taking out anything in your house that is not going to serve your body and you fill your house up with things that will serve your body.
Maria Hines: Then, your little pea brain that just is all of a sudden like, "Nope, I'm super tired, I need sugar. Nope. I'm super sad, I need sugar. Nope. I'm super hungry right now I need energy right now, I need sugar." Well, if you take that away, then you can start to change your physiology into being like, "I need protein, I need fat." And then you start craving that.
Shelby Stanger: What will you have for lunch and what will you have for dinner today?
Maria Hines: That's a real good question. We're back and forth from Mazama and stuff right now. I don't even know. I have a Turkey breast in there. So the Turkey breast will get roasted. We'll have our protein for at least a couple days to get through. And then, let's see, I have some kale in there that's starting to get a little raggedy. So, I'll probably sauté up that kale or I'll just leave it raw and make a little quick Caesar. Lunchtime, it's got to be sorted. And then you can turn around and have that for dinner, the Turkey breasts, so I can dice that up and sauté up some mushrooms and add that little bit of half and half to it, a little bit of lemon juice and there you go.
Maria Hines: So, very simple preparations, especially on a workday, or you just sear a piece of fish really quickly and then sauté up some peppers with it. But having the little condiments in your fridge is what can make quick cooking taste really delicious. If you have harissa, which is a Moroccan spice or even if you have sriracha, whatever, heavily spicing things, heavy on the herbs, basil, cilantro, those sorts of things really bolster up the flavor and it makes it feel different.
Shelby Stanger: So, what are some of your go-to foods for a day of climbing and hiking?
Maria Hines: So, here's what a day looks like for me if I'm going to go do a multi-pitch rock climb in Washington Pass. So, if I get up at 4:00, 4:30, the first thing I'll do is have a half cup of coffee, so I don't get over-adrenalized and I'll have a smoothie that's already made. Start drinking electrolyte water. That's my first fueling, well, fueling starts the night before. So, the night before I'd have a good dinner a couple hours before bed. And then, get to the crag, do an hour and a half hike in, you got some stuff in your pack and you're going uphill and you're on a climber's trail and you have to navigate blah, blah, blah. And then you get to the base of the route. And then once I'm at the base of the route and I'm pulling stuff out on my pack, get my harness on, going pee.
Maria Hines: But while all that is happening, I'll take two little frittata bites that I had made already. And I will eat those frittata bites, which would be the equivalent of probably one and a half to two eggs with like some bacon, spinach or whatever.
Maria Hines: And then, I'll just climb. And then, when I get up to the top, I might have a snack. I'll have a few macadamia nuts, they're very calorically dense, but they aren't a lot of weight, because the omegas that I need for my brain to make sure that I stay really focused, because now I'm at the top of the peak and now I have to repel. So, try and keep my wits about me, keep my coordination up. And then now it's time for the hour and a half hike out. I might have one more thing of fuel, I'll bring a homemade bar that I made and I'll just... And everything that I have, I'm bringing things that I can multitask so I can eat while I'm changing out my climbing shoes, while I'm putting on my harness while I'm tying my knot, when I'm putting everything back in my pack and putting my approach shoes back on and all that sort of stuff.
Maria Hines: I'm eating things that are very efficient, where I can continue to move. And I put them in places in my pockets or whatever, where it's also accessible. So, I put that in my protocol, as far as my food is concerned. You got to keep your food as light and calorie-dense as you can, and make sure you're eating things that will serve you and give you the energy.
Shelby Stanger: In Maria's book, there are tons of recipes for yummy snacks and food to carry on the trail. She also shares this expertise in the series on REI's YouTube channel called Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines. Think of a classic cooking show, but one that takes place on a campsite picnic table or a beach overlooking the Puget Sound. In the series, Maria shows you her camp kitchen setup and walks you through some fantastic meals. Things like seafood risotto, summer salad with seared cheese, and even fresh pasta. She rolls out the pasta dough on top of her cooler with a water bottle like a total badass.
Maria Hines: We can take our dough. I'm going to get our water bottle, roll it out. You can make these as thick or as thin as you prefer. Look at that. Look how beautiful that is. Okay. So, now we're going to take our climber's knife, because that's all we have available to us. When you're cutting it, there isn't necessarily a trick, it's really up to you. That's the beauty of pasta. You can do really any shape that you want. This is the nice, simple, straightforward just really nice pasta.
Shelby Stanger: Okay. So, you have this amazing YouTube series with REI, which is great, because you're combining everything you love, adventure and food. And I watched a couple episodes last night. It's very entertaining, very informative. You're a total badass, but you're also funny. And you explain cooking in the most... It's the best cooking show I've ever seen. Tell me about this show.
Maria Hines: It's called Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines and that's just the premise of the show is just cooking out, being outdoors, celebrating the outdoors, moving your body, adventuring out there and how you can tie cooking into it. Like, Shelby, there is so much shit camp food out there on the market. And it's dehydrated and it's over-salted and it's all refined carbs. And it feels like a gut bomb when you eat it. And when you're moving your body outside, you want to be comfortable. You want your vessel to be on point, because that's what's taking us to these incredible places.
Shelby Stanger: So, in one episode you're kayaking and you make this amazing pistachio salad with this grilled cheese, that's like beautiful cheese. It's a nice halloumi cheese. And then, I watched this other episode where you're making homemade pasta in the wild and it's mind-blowing.
Maria Hines: That whole episode with the camp pasta was a very fond memory of climbing Leaning Tower in Yosemite Valley with two dear friends of mine. And this is like a beginner trad route. If you want to get into big wall climbing in Yosemite Valley and you want to get on El Cap, this is one of the easier routes where you're only going to spend one night.
Maria Hines: So, we did this climb and it was great. 90-degree weather, we ran out of water. We got up to the ledge, the top of pitch four, or something like that, and realized that we weren't going to have enough water to finish the climb. We wrapped down the climb, then you got to hike out. And then we had to go get water and then spend the night on the ground, on the valley floor. And then, we had to jug back up our fixed lines with all this water attached to our harness in this 90-degree weather. So, it was fully epic.
Maria Hines: Anyways, we finished the climb, we top out and it's sunny and beautiful. And then, you see that the weather's coming in and as we're doing the wraps, there's hail and the visibility is less than 10 feet in front of you. So, we're doing these double rope length wraps down this gully with 10 feet of visibility, with hail and slick rock. But we did it. So, we get done, we get back to the valley floor, we camp out. We don't have any cooking equipment because we were staying in a tent. We were just going to eat pizza, but we're like, "Okay, we're going to make dinner. We're going to have a celebration dinner, because we just did that."
Maria Hines: And we're like, "What can we do? We don't have any cooking equipment. We have a Jetboil that we use to make coffee in the morning." And I was like, "I'm making pasta." So, we went to the little shop that they had there in town where they had some staples and stuff. And I was like, "Cool." Because all we need is flower, water, egg. Yep. And then we have pasta. So, I was like, "Okay, I have my climber's knife. And I have my Nalgene bottle that I can use as a rolling pin and we have the Jetboil." So, I just made pasta with that.
Maria Hines: And I would never think to make pasta like that. I wouldn't. In a professional kitchen, I would make it the best possible way I could. But when you are limited on resources, but you still want to cook something rad, you just kind of figure it out. And then, I was so psyched on it, I was like, "Oh man, I got to share this with people and let them know that like, "Check it out. You can actually do this. I am as surprised as you are, but now I know how to do it. So, let me demonstrate this. So, y'all know that you can do it. And maybe, just maybe, if you can see that someone can make it with limited resources, well, making it in your home kitchen would be the easiest thing in the world." And hopefully that came across.
Shelby Stanger: It's such a good show. You're such a joy to watch. I mean, it's just clear in the videos how much you love cooking and being outside. So, what's next for the show?
Maria Hines: As we continue to do Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines, it has been my wish to really address the food equity challenges that we have on the local level in our country and around the globe. And finding ways to be a storyteller and show people how to make recipes using ingredients that have been mindfully sourced is a big part of what that program, what the show already is about. And that next level that I am taking it to is, let's get a little political, let's talk about some of these challenges that are happening.
Maria Hines: We have a lot of, I have a lot of privilege, but not everyone has such great access to food and not everyone can afford to eat healthy, clean food and shop at farmers' markets. Some places, it's a full on food desert and then food sovereignty, and people not having the space and the ability to connect with their food culturally and how some of that has been taken away from them.
Maria Hines: And then, climate change, everything that's going on. We're watching the land burn and it is really wreaking havoc on the whole planet and that's affecting our food system. Food is something that we all do and it's a way that we all can connect and figuring out a way to do that and really talk about these food equity issues and climate change and how that's affecting our food system. So, it's my wish that we can use this show to give all of us the tools and help guide us into a new world.
Shelby Stanger: Maria sees the future of food and it's a beautiful one, for her food isn't just about taste or origin or nutrition, it's all wrapped up to make it a multifaceted, intricate part of our day-to-day lives. The connection between food and nature is everywhere. Our planet provides the resources we need to grow and harvest beautiful ingredients, that in turn nourishes us. We all deserve access to food that makes us happier, healthier, and more compassionate people.
Shelby Stanger: Maria, thanks so much for coming on the show and sharing your philosophies and stories with me. Thank you also for sending me chocolate. You can all send me chocolate if you'd like. I had an absolute blast talking with you. You can get Maria's book Peak Nutrition at REI or anywhere books are sold. You can also follow along with Maria's adventures on her Instagram @chefmariahines, that's C-H-E-F M-A-R-I-A H-I-N-E-S. And of course, be sure to check out our show Cook Out with Chef Maria Hines at youtube.com/rei.
Shelby Stanger: Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, written and edited by Annie Fassler and Sylvia Thomas at Puddle Creative and our senior producer is Chelsea Davis. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow this show, rate it and take the time to write a review wherever you listen, because we read all of them. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.