Episode 73: Refilling Your Cup & Showing Up Fully As Yourself with Tadin Tea & Herb Co.

Podcast

Episode 73: Refilling Your Cup & Showing Up Fully As Yourself with Tadin Tea & Herb Co.

“What refills your cup? What makes you feel whole?” — Carla Contreras

This podcast episode is about refilling your taza (cup). Learn how I became a food stylist, why I started this podcast, and why I work with Tadin Tea & Herb Co, a brand that literally fills my cup to the brim! Shop the teas here

This month (September through October) is Hispanic Heritage month, I share about my culture, my background as a Latina woman and how I continue traditions with my kiddos.

I also share my new Ebook Refill Your Taza (Cup) with Tadin Tea & Herb Co. I can’t wait for you to see it! It filled my heart to create it. DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY

Journal Prompts:

1. What refills your cup?

2. What makes you whole?

3. Get out your calendar. When can this be scheduled?

4. Do you need support in making that happen?

I am excited to hear your thoughts! Listen on ITUNES + Spotify

Please tag us @chefcarlacontreras & @tadintea on Instagram so I can continue the conversation with you. Use the hashtag #showupfullypodcast

Eat Well,

xo Chef Carla

PS: Curious about my Health Coach journey? Listen to this episode

About Chef Carla Contreras

For the last 24 + years, I’ve worked as a trained chef in: Restaurants, hotels, as a chef instructor at three culinary schools, and personal chef in New York City.

Since 2013, I have been sharing my gift of content creation with publications and brands like Better Homes and Gardens, The Wall Street Journal, Shape Magazine, justBobbi.com, Nutritious Life, Well + Good.

In my personal brand, I not only show up for the hard things, I own them and then share them with the world, like my $38,000 lesson I learned in my business and evolution of a Digital Entrepreneur over the last ten years.

In my online courses, I bring my years of experience as a trained chef, content creator, health and life coach, and meditation teacher to help you with you shift mindset around cooking & the content creation process. Learn more here

Find + Work With Carla:

Online Courses & Books: Learn more here

Instagram: @chefcarlacontreras

Full Transcript:

00:00.00

Hey, it's chef Carla and welcome to show up fully. This is a podcast where I share what it's like to show up for your real life if you don't know me I'm a food stylist and content creation coach. You can find me on Instagram and Tickt Tock @chefcarlacontreras and more information in today's show notes this episode is about refilling your taza or cup in english it's about how I became a food stylist I'm also going to talk about how I started this podcast. Why I started this podcast. Why work with a brand called Tadin that literally fills my cup to the brim and so much more we are in Hispanic Heritage month right now if you're listening in September of twenty twenty two I'm also gonna talk about. My culture and my background being a latina woman and I'm really just excited to share with you. What refills my cup and I would like to take a moment and ask you what. Refills your cup. What fills you up? What makes you feel whole and I'll put journal prompts in the show notes as I always do and I also want to share with you that I have created a new ebook with tadin tea. what.

01:35.10

Called refill your taza and I have in (cup). It's recipes with Tadin tea and herb co and it's full of tea drinks and cocktails and smoothies. And there was a beautiful hot chocolate and I have had so much fun creating this book and I can't wait for you to see it I'll put a link to it in the show notes. I would really appreciate if you could share it with someone. You love if it resonates with you via text message via email create an Instagram story. You can always tag me I would love that all right? Let's get into the interview. That to deant asked me to do last year just after Hispanic Heritage month and the first question is what inspired you to start recipe development and your podcast show up fully. So. Way back when in 2001 when I started culinary school I told my friend Megan Carolyn who is still my friend to this day we literally text you each other gifs because we're both on peloton and we'll text each other.

03:02.61

After we do a workout. It's like the most fun ever that is a way I refill my cup by the way. Um, so I told her that I wanted to be a food stylist on the first day of culinary school mind you I literally had no idea what a food stylist did but I wanted to be 1 and so therefore I was at culinary school now. It took me until 2013 so it took me like 12 years of working in hotels and restaurants and catering and. All the things I worked at whole foods to start food styling. So I saw a class it was at the french culinary which became international culinary center which is now sadly gone and I met my food styling mentor Heather Meldrum and literally as soon as I met her. She was like oh my gosh you cook you are a trained chef yes I would love for you to be my assistant so I worked with her for two full years and we worked on all. Sorts of food styling gigs like some of my favorite ones were on location for better homes and gardens my goodness like if you've ever looked at one of those magazine covers or their stories like there is so many people.

04:36.26

Go into creating that it's just it's absolutely phenomenal. So I worked with her and then once I had my daughter I feel like I worked up until I was like nine months pregnant with Ella and then I worked. Through a little bit of mossimo and I just couldn't do it anymore. I had to figure out how I was going to stay at home write recipes food style take videos do all the things from home because I had two babies. And I had moved from New York city to New Jersey and the train from my house to the city is two and a half hours each way so that was like not a possibility so I created basically work from home before that was work from home and it was incredible. To be able to work with brands like well and good just Bobby Bumblebee tuna from home and so that's what I have done literally since 2016. Okay, the podcast it was started in 2020 I did have a Podcast and if you've listened to the show for a while it was called cooking is the new healthy. But in 2020, I was like okay I want to move into show up fully because I want to show up fully for all of the things. I feel like showing up is a.

06:11.18

It's just like a big term in terms of like business in terms of wellness in terms of spirituality in terms of parenthood we're asked to show up in all of these places but number 1 we're not told how to show up and number 2 we're not told what to do when we don't want to. And or are unable to show up and this is an important distinction being unable to show up and I've had so many conversations with people about being unable to show up maybe physically maybe mentally maybe emotionally. Like there are all sorts of different ways that prevent us from showing up and those things are completely valid and I want to like give that space that there are things that happen in the world and maybe. They are things that are completely out of our control in which a way we cannot show up so I want to acknowledge that so on the podcast if you haven't listened to this before I have interviews I have podcast snacks I talk to kealers I talk to. Instagram experts I talk to cookbook authors I really love to dive deep into the people that I know and have connected with so when you listen to this podcast I have connected with each person deeply.

07:44.00

And that's what makes this such a special place so the next question here is let's talk tea. Are you a tea drinker. My goodness. Yes, if so what's your favorite tea and thinking back to your past near or far. What's your favorite t inspired memory or moment. So I love this question and I also want to throw this into the journal prompts if you have a favorite t memory I would love to know. Personally I would love to know send me a Dm on Instagram or you know find my email address in the show notes send me a message because I want to know what is your favorite tea memory if you have one. So for me I'm like a massive tea drinker and I remember. And to Dean first approached to me to create content from them I found them through a Dm I there was a tea I feel like it was like day day Mamma which is like a mother tea. And it's a blend that they no longer carry but it was literally my favorite and they sent me this gorgeous box of tea and I did a giveaway with them and then a few years later they asked me to create content and I was like oh my goodness. Yes.

09:11.45

I love tea this lights me up I am so excited to create for you and it's just been this beautiful relationship that I have with them and I feel like for me I get to be 100 % who I am. Which which root refills me in ways that I can't even express to you? So yes, I'm a huge tea drinker and I also lived in England during my culinary internship when I went to Johnson and wales for culinary school and I drink tea. Every single day we were not allowed to have coffee side note here and I just became this huge tea drinker and I would like to say it like I love all kinds of tea and I love matcha I love green tea I love. Black tea. Um hibiscus has been a new one as I've worked with to Dean I absolutely love it and came aile or do you pronounce it came aile I would love to know that as well because that's something that is definitely out there. So I have a cabinet full of tea right now and I get to play and experiment by working with Sudean and it's literally one of the best things that I get to do and I can't wait to hear what you think of the ebook because it literally is its joy.

10:48.19

It's pure joy to create this. Okay so t is not only part of my day but it's also part of my writing process. So I like to sit down with a warm mug before 5 a m. And I have two kids if you haven't listened to the show before I have two kids they are 7 and 6 right now and I really like to sit down with my warm mug of tea and take a deep breath and I invite you to do the same. Take a deep breath in your nose and take a deep breath out your nose or mouth and that's the kind of joy and the kind of ah presence that I bring to my five a m cup of tea. I really love to do that and I also like to drink a cup of tea before bed I often will bring a cup of tea with me to bath time with my kids as a way to anchor myself into the evening routine for myself. It's such a. Beautiful experience. So let's talk about Hispanic Heritage month because this is a huge part of my identity. My dad is from Chile. He came from chile in the 70 s to Rochester New York where I was born.

12:18.99

And growing up. Food was a huge part of my culture and my grandfather lived with us until we were about sticks so there was a lot of spanish speaking there was a lot of chilean food. There was like. Big pots of langua which is is tongue. There was perneil which is pork. There was tripe stew there was soap I beas which are these pumpkin fried dough and bananaas actually one of my family members has an empannada business. Um, an avocado toast. This was way before avocado toast was cool I was having avocado toast with a little bit of olive oil and salt for breakfast. It was incredible and I also thought about this in terms of writing these. This article and answering this questions for tain was that I have a huge identity towards Puerto rican culture and Puerto rican food because my cousin's father was from Puerto Rico and so. We had things like those donnnas and Madoros which are um, unripe and ripe plantains like oh oh my goodness I could I could crave a planttain right now I love planting so much boyo guato I love this I crave this.

13:51.87

It's a chicken stew that literally just like warms my soul I worked with a housekeeper that was from Columbia that used to make a version that it just it was such comfort such comfort when I was a personal chef. Um, she used to cook for me and it was just it was just so wonderful to be taking care of in that way. So there was a lot of things. A ro a roast con gudole rice and beans pastel. Um, which is lasagna. With plantains. It's it's a type of lasagna if some will say it's Puerto rican lasagna and literally everything was seasoned with a dobo everything like and my Italian American Mother took this on she literally put it in salad dressing in chicken. And potatoes like Adoba was in everything. So for me having 2 children and makes it extra important to remember my hispanic culture my hispanic heritage and. I love going to the library and reading to my kids in spanish I am not fluent in spanish. It is not perfect by any means but things that are important is listening to music teaching them how to dance introducing them to foods. It's just.

15:23.48

chefcarla_77

It's so beautiful, especially with plantains like I have a special relationship with plantains and to have my kids love that it just lights me up so part of the content creation that I do and part of what's in the ebook with tadine which again is in the show notes. I love to use colors and flavors and music to create all of this because tadean is hispanic culture and it allows me again to be fully myself in that. Refills my cup. Oh my gosh in so many beautiful ways it refills my cups in terms of my culture in terms of my heritage in terms of creation in terms of being my self fully. And for other people to witness that if you've liked this episode I would love to hear from you text message email social media I'm @chefcarlacontreras on Instagram there's more information in the show notes sending you and yours so much. Love. Bye.