ABOUT

Hi Friends! My name is Chanelle Saks, MasterChef Canada Top 5 Finalist (Season 6) and I am what you could call a Fashion Foodie! (Is that even a thing?? Regardless, I’m MAKING it a thing.)

My aim with CHEZ CHANELLE is to inspire you when it comes to things like cooking, style and photography and provide a destination for modern living inspiration through the sharing of my favourite recipes, lifestyle posts and life hacks (#SAKSHAKS)

My Story

Born & raised in Calgary, I grew up watching my mom cook up the most incredible meals and putting on extravagant family dinners! Some of my fondest childhood memories are the loud, bustling & delicious dinners we would have with our extended family! Our family will literally use any excuse to get together and eat; every possible occasion, birthday, you know name it – we get together to enjoy a meal and many laughs! Although I have many fond food memories, there was a time when I did not have the most positive relationship with food; during my adolescent years while working as a fashion model. Thankfully I was able to overcome a harsh battle with anorexia and re-establish my love & passion for food some years later but it was not easy. Because of this, for me – food and artistic expression through food is also representative of my resilience & strength – and you better believe I’m going to wear that like a badge of honour!

Cooking is just another palette…

I have also always had a lifelong passion for all things “art” – whether it be photography, fashion, home design, makeup, painting, writing… and to me, cooking is just another art form & palette that I get to play with!

What can you expect on CHEZ CHANELLE?

Well for starters…. A LOT OF YUMMY FOOD PICS & RECIPES! My Mediterranean roots definitely inspire a lot my recipes and my body naturally craves what most people would call “healthy” food but to be honest, I really do not like that label at all. To me, the term “healthy” is so subjective & coming from someone who became anorexic by fixating on “what’s healthy” – I would prefer to ditch the label all together! If you really want to know… for the most part I like to define “healthy cooking” based on the time, love, & effort put into the process. That probably sounds corny but it’s really what I believe – when you put that elbow grease into kneading out your pasta dough & light your forearms on fire by grating cheese & stand over a pot of bolognese for 2 hours – THAT’S WHAT I CALL HEALTHY! So in summary, I will be sharing recipes that I make for my family that always emphasize taste & sometimes nutritional value but that are all tried & true!