Rachel Duboff is the founder and lead chef for {thyme to Nourish}. Having recently relocated to the Los Angeles area, Rachel is currently focused on using her 20 years as a professional chef to empower others to be more confident in the kitchen. In her formative years, Rachel had the good fortune to be raised in Seattle by a stay-at-home mom who loved to cook and try out new recipes. Rachel spent many hours watching her mom in the kitchen, and eventually tried her hand at cooking on her own. A move to Malaysia in her early twenties exposed Rachel to the world of SE Asian and Indian cooking where she learned to cook with co-workers and their families. On her return to North America, Rachel headed to Vancouver, BC where she worked in the former Cookshop Cooking School and began experimenting on her own with private catering. In 1999 Rachel returned to Seattle and in 2001/2002 attended the Culinary Arts program at the Art Institute of Seattle.
Today, she is an accomplished chef with experience as a food educator, personal chef and caterer—having done everything from small dinner parties to weddings for 175. Rachel has been an instructor for PCC Community Markets since 2010 covering such topics as meal planning, pressure cooking and specialty classes that focus on health. Rachel also spent several years teaching corporate cooking classes and was an active volunteer chef instructor from 2003-2012 with Cooking Matters at Solid Ground, teaching food and nutrition skills to at-risk communities throughout Seattle; Rachel was inducted into the Share our Strength Hall of Fame in 2011 for her contributions to Cooking Matters. Rachel also formerly served on the steering committee for Community Kitchens Northwest and led the monthly Wallingford Kitchen from October 2009 through April 2012. In 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Rachel founded a program to help feed neighbors struggling with the sudden challenges of navigating the new world. Over the course of 8 months, working with over 140 volunteer chefs, drivers and packers, Neighbors Feeding Neighbors Seattle delivered almost 11,000 meals. Rachel’s work was recognized by US Senator Patty Murray with a Golden Tennis Shoe award in 2021.
Rachel’s focus on special needs diets started with guiding friends and family through their struggles with new-found vegetarianism/veganism, high cholesterol, diabetes, gluten intolerance/food based allergies, cancer treatment. Realizing that they often lacked the culinary skills to be able to master these challenges on their own, Rachel became an invaluable adviser, providing recipes, guidance and cooking on their behalf. In 2010, Rachel continued her commitment to food and wellness by completing a certification in Nutritional Therapy offered through the Nutritional Therapy Association.
Rachel started {thyme to Nourish} because she believes that whole foods and healthy eating is the source of good health and happiness. She is dedicated to helping her clients embrace food no matter what challenges or goals they may have. Rachel served many years as the President of the Puget Sound Personal Chefs Association. With her relocation from Seattle to Santa Monica in the summer of 2021, Rachel can often be found checking out the abundance of farmers markets throughout the region, enjoying a meal at the beach and teaching classes to empower others to bring health and joy into their lives through food. Rachel and {thyme to Nourish} focus on providing good food to good people.