Publisher

Hi, my name is Valerie. I created Let’s Regale to entertain and delight healthy eating made easy. This blog grew out of that realization: To inspire people to get in the kitchen, and to sit down and enjoy a meal they cooked, with the ones they love. Because what is more than the food itself, is the love behind it. Welcome to Let’s Regale. My name is Valerie, and I’m a twenty-something San Francisco native; lifestyle expert, travel and food blogger, yoga enthusiast, and a pescetarian. A natural self-starter, I created Let’s Regale to entertain and delight healthy eating made easy. Early on I’ve enjoyed cooking. I grew up in a household of Mexican immigrants–food and family has always been a big part of life to me. Cooking along side both grandmothers, aunts and my mom was common. When I was 22, I was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, and that’s when I really started to love cooking. I had to quickly adapt and teach myself how to eat without gluten in what seemed a gluten-filled world. I became vegetarian (really, I’m a pescetarian. I eat fish, rarely dairy, eggs on occasion) at 25–this came natural to me since my mom is a vegetarian. I enjoy cooking, and I love to cook local, seasonal foods with an alluring simplicity without compromising flavor. I aim to make food with the most optimal nutrients to fuel and nourish the body. I believe that delicious food can be healthy. Cooking has grown into a deep passion of mine. I love the act of preparing a meal and sharing it with someone; I love going, to the farmers market, selecting ingredients and coming home to create something fresh for my husband; I love making our friends & family feel comfortable in our home and sharing a meal with them. I’ve realized that it’s part of my happiness as a person, putting effort into something and sharing with others. This blog grew out of that realization. It’s a way for me to do all of those things for a lot more people, to share the things I’ve learned in my time as a gluten intolerant-pescetarian home cook. To inspire people to get in the kitchen, and to sit down and enjoy a meal they cooked, with the ones they love. Because what’s more than the food itself, is the love behind it. WHEN I POST… I post often. I generally post 3-4 times per week. Blogs are published every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday; and, sometimes Monday’s. SOME TECHNICAL INFO I use a Canon PowerShot SX1O IS and Nikon Coolpix S8000 (nothing fancy!), props and lighting reflectors. For editing, I use Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture. Some photos on Let’s Regale, are taken using the iPhone5, iPhone lenses, edit with Camera+ or iPhoto, Aperture on my Mac, and filtered with Instagram. I do post photos daily on Instagram. Some are used on Let’s Regale, some aren’t. Some are the run-of-the-mill tourist and foodie shots, and more down-to-earth pictures, too. Follow @valeriefidan and tag your photos with #letsregale. If you’d like to use our photos + recipes, please ask or kindly link back to our site for the full recipe and instructions.