I call myself a multi-passionate entrepreneur, my clients call me Nika, my friends call me Monica, and my family calls me Lee Shin Hua!
My culinary goals are three-fold: 1) establish a non-profit organization that connects food-related trauma victims to diverse communities through family-style dining, safe conversations, and hands on cooking classes, called “Edible Healing;” 2) build an international, socially-focused for-profit business that hosts community dinners with a discussion topic that focuses on life, vitality and self-empowerment, called “Community Beyond Belief;” and 3) become a food influencer using food to promote psychological healing, health, connection, and community.
I am an early stage, food-related trauma survivor. When I was six years old, my preschool caretaker force fed me my own vomit. Immediately following this experience I became extremely tense and afraid every time I had to eat. I resorted to eating alone and only chili paste with white rice. I became extremely underweight and developed early stage anorexia. I could not eat in front of adults and distrusted the people who prepared my food.
As a result, I gravitated to the kitchen to cook for myself. At a young age, I had no knowledge of cooking, but spending time in the kitchen cutting fresh vegetables and inventing dishes became the most healing journey for my mental and physical being. Food became more than just something that made me full; it became a tool for achieving health, happiness, connection and community. Eventually, cooking caused my anorexia to abate. After high school, my wounds from the force-feeding trauma fully subsided, and I discovered the absolute thrill of feeding myself and others. It was not only about the food on the plate, but about the fulfillment of preparing it and the connection gained from sharing.
After years of cooking informally for myself after graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at Parsons, and hosting dinner parties purely for the joy they brought me, I feel strongly that this is my life mission, to create and share food in a way that heals food-related traumas and connects communities.
As a self-made entrepreneur at 21 years old, a survivor of early stage anorexia, a multi-lingual, multi-passionate, fiercely driven, intelligent, resourceful, creative young adult, I know that I can become a tremendous food influencer using food as a tool for psychological healing, connection, and community.
