Chef Neelam founded Bliss Belly Kitchen in 2016 out of a love for good fresh food, yoga and community. She cleverly named the camp, "Yoga of Cooking" because it encompassed the specialized style of cooking she learned while studying yoga, meditation, and Ayurvedic living in Meditation centers in India, Canada, and the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Ayurveda is the 5,000 year old sister science to yoga, and it is all about utilizing herbs, lifestyle, and nutrition to live ones optimal life.

The schools of yoga and Ayurveda teach that there is a transfer of energy between the cook and the food, and therefore it is just as important to clear the mind through breath work and meditation as it is to wash your hands! An emphasis on mental hygiene, so to speak, is as important as physical hygiene.

The first Yoga of Cooking camp was offered in Berkeley and instantly got rave reviews from parents who told Chef Neelam, "I've never seen my kid so happy!", and kids who loved the delicious, fresh food after a morning practice of yoga.  Since then Bliss Belly Kitchen has since brought bliss and taught self care to thousands of children and continues to expand throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

Chef Neelam holds a deep passion to care for Mother Nature and wants to educate children to do the same.  You will see her commitment to nature in Bliss Belly Kitchen's menus, which are all planet friendly, vegetarian, and have a low carbon footprint! 

In 2022, Chef Neelam was awarded TIME Magazine Teacher of the year for her work empowering children to enact climate change solutions- mainly by the planting of Miyawaki forests in Berkeley, CA. Have you seen them? They are planted at King Middle School, Cragmont Elementary, Malcolm X Elementary, and Berkeley Technology Academy (next to Sports Basement), and they are thriving!