Order Up! A Conversation with Chef Carmen, Latina Chef, Bilingual Educator, & Rock Star Mom
Founder & Owner of Healthy Con Gusto, Carmen answers our five rapid-fire questions and shares her passion & tips for cooking from the heart.
Welcome to Order Up! Our One Potato Interview Series. We’re featuring Latino/a chefs during Hispanic Heritage Month. Thanks for reading, we only exist because of support from you, our One Potato community 🥔
Carmen Karlsgodt is a self-taught Chef, recipe developer, bilingual educator & owner of Healthy Con Gusto.
Through interactive cooking demos focused on redefining what food is, Chef Carmen promotes gut health along with cultural health. Her mission is to make it simple for everyone to eat guilt -free while nourishing their bodies, hearts and souls. At One Potato, we fell in love with Carmen’s energy, both in & out of the kitchen. She encourages parents, alongside their kids and friends, to cook and nourish themselves with plant-based and nutrient-rich dishes. Born in Lima, Peru, Carmen currently lives in the South Bay, Southern California, with her husband and kids; in addition to cooking demos, catering and meal delivery, she is also working on a children’s book for picky eaters inspired by her incredibly kind children. She is an energetic cultural health advocate who loves to dance salsa, and an informed autoimmune warrior with a sunflower mindset.
Introduce Yourself: Chef Carmen, husband Steve, 1 son and 1 daughter
My name is Carmen Karlsgodt, and I have been happily married to Steve for 14 years. I am grateful for our 2 incredible kids who are my personal food critics, who inspire me to make delicious and nourishing dishes every day.
When did you become passionate about cooking? Is there a story behind it?
I’ve cooked my whole life. Not sure if I felt the passion as a kid when it was one of my chores. But seeing the women in my family and how they glowed in the kitchen taught me how to show love through food. I used to cook for friends in college who either loved Peruvian food or had never tried it. My husband was one of those people who had never even heard of Peruvian food, and now of course he has it almost weekly. However, my true passion is not just cooking, but teaching people how to nourish their bodies, hearts and souls with food.
We couldn’t agree more - nourishment is about so much more than just food and how it’s cooked. It’s about the whole experience surrounding cooking - the traditions, who you’re cooking with, the love that you put into it. That’s why we love sharing these interviews and stories, and not simply recipes, here at One Potato.
A Cooking Skill you use all the time, that you think other home cooks should practice/have under their belt:
How to make rice perfectly is a must skill, at least for Peruvian chefs. It has to be cooked thoroughly, but not mushy, with just enough garlic and salt. If you have rice you’re just 15 mins away from a delicious meal.
At One Potato, we always recommend rice as a great meal planning base to have on hand for quick and easy week night dinners. Thanks for this cooking skill recommendation, Carmen.
We love learning about our community members’ kitchen hacks and favorite kitchen tools. What’s yours, and why?
Might be an unpopular opinion but I learned a long time ago to get rid of tools that take up prime kitchen real estate, especially those tools that are only used once in a blue moon. So the hack that will keep on giving is to declutter. Whatever is taking space in your kitchen countertop, if you haven’t used it this month, get rid of it.
This is a great tip! We know that most of our kitchens could probably use a clean out…
What’s your kid’s favorite cooking task, or how do they help out in the kitchen?
My children have been very involved in the kitchen, our happy place, since they were able to walk. My son loved chopping and my daughter loved measuring. Now that they are a little older, my son loves being in charge of the mashed potatoes whenever we make them and my daughter’s signature dishes are fruit salad and guacamole. Since cooking is a necessary skill, I wanted to give them confidence and food knowledge, and my reward has been all the wonderful moments that we created together, and the many more to come.
Any other fun facts that you think our One Potato family would like to learn about you?
A lot of people think I’m vegan, but I am not…yet. My advice for people who want to start eating more plants, start with just one meal a day. That’s 30 plant-based meals a month. This should be a guilt-free journey, and it’s a personal decision, so you make the rules. Remember to celebrate your wins and stop caring about perfection. If you focus on eating what makes your taste buds and gut happy, you’re halfway there.
We love that Chef Carmen and her family are part of OUR family at One Potato. To learn more about Carmen and Healthy Con Gusto, you can visit healthycongusto.com and follow @healthycongusto on Instagram.
Chef Carmen is the co-founder of the South Bay Women’s Wellness, a group focused on women’s social health, community and connection, in a new post-pandemic era. Chef Carmen graduated from UCLA with a B.A in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology, and attended UCSB for her M.A in Spanish Language, Linguistics and Cultural Studies. Carmen taught French and Spanish for over 15 years in private schools. Since her transition to cooking she has remained an educator at heart and has been honored to work with the following organizations and brands: Black Women for Wellness - Kaiser Permanente - FEAST- Susan G. Komen - The American Heart Association - Arbonne - Forever21 - One Potato Community.