Julia Shanks
Principal
Julia Shanks – chef and entrepreneur — consults with food businesses and farms, helping them maximize profits and streamline operations through business planning, feasibility studies and operational audits. Clients include Life Alive, Cuisine en Locale, The Elephant Walk, The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and City Growers. She lectures on sustainable food systems and restaurant accounting. She sits on the advisory board of Future Chefs and is the regional leader of Slow Money Boston.
In 1997, after 5 years of cooking in restaurants, Julia launched her first business, Interactive Cuisine. Through this innovative service, she provided informal cooking lessons in the comfort of the home kitchen. The business grew to include corporate team-building through cooking, and garnered local and national press – including Bon Appétit Magazine and The Boston Globe. Her second business, CSA Cookbooks, creates custom cookbooks for small farmers seeking a way to build loyalty with their customers by offering this unique value-added product. Her books have been reviewed in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, Taste of the Seacoast, and Growing For Market.
Julia authored two books: The Farmers Market Cookbook and The Farmer’s Office, both published by New Society.
Julia received her professional training as a chef at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, her BA from Hampshire College and an MBA Magna Cum Laude from Babson College.