The National Institute of Whole Health’s Program Director Dr. Georgianna Donadio recently interviewed Jackie Kai Ellis on her hit radio show, Living Above The Drama. Shared with you below is an introduction to this passionate woman and her journey followed by complete audio of the live-recorded episode for your listening pleasure.

My guest is a woman who has journeyed through the darkness of a painful childhood and empty marriage, to discover her true self, her beauty and her passion through the world of food– Food, apart from its actual function, can also be a metaphor for the nourishment we all need in life. A successful designer with her own studio, Jackie Kai Ellis, had accomplished what everyone told her she needed to be happy and fulfilled, yet each morning she would wake up dreading the day ahead. She had “the perfect life” – yet she was struggling to solve the problems within her marriage and looking to escape the ongoing depression which hung like a cloud over her days. Jackie’s love of cooking and baking led her to the only place where she found peace and comfort, in her kitchen.

Jackie writes in her memoir: The Measure of My Powers: Food, Misery and Paris of the journey she takes to find herself, from France to Italy, then to the Congo and back again. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, and has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon. Ultimately, she finds her unique path to joy and fulfillment.

In her soon to be released book, Jackie has shared her vulnerability, sadness, suffering, struggles and finally her wholeness and joy for life. We are all the better for being able to look behind the curtain of another’s life, especially a life that is believed to be “perfect”.

The Measure of my Powers:
Am Memoir of Food, Misery, and Paris
by Jackie Kai Ellis

Contact: jackiekaiellis.com