Valerie Skinner is a natural foods chef based in Charleston where she bridges the gap between healthy eating and busy lives providing simple, healthy and affordable meals.

Long Story Short

Hi there! I’m Valerie Skinner, a certified healing foods chef trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute (now part of ICE) in NYC, the first culinary school in the country dedicated to health-supportive cooking. I began my career in the health industry over a decade ago, working as a personal trainer, sport supplement consultant, chiropractic assistant, and holistic health coach. My passion for health and wellness has led me to open thousands of minds to a new, healthier lifestyle. I’ve worked as a private chef and health mentor for terminally ill patients, catered celebrity music events, and helped pioneer the healthy food movement in Hawaii. As the founding executive chef and co-manager for Blue Tree Cafe, a popular healthy eatery and juicery in Honolulu started by Kevin and Steve Aoki (yes, the famous DJ), I introduced juice cleansing and provided healthy foods for various diets.

I’m also the co-founder and natural foods chef for Jar + Fork, a once successful fast-casual health restaurant concept in Miami, FL. Now, I live in Northern Virginia with my husband and son, where I’m committed to helping others (and myself) use food and health to become our best selves. I love sharing quick and easy ways to get healthy food on the table FAST, especially with kitchen gadgets like the air fryer, and more!

Short Story Long

After graduating culinary school, I decided to follow my heart to the middle of nowhere with little clue about what would happen next. I ended up in Hawaii where I hit the ground running. Because of my fantastic training, I was able to pursue personal chef jobs where I prepared foods for people with serious illness (i.e: cancer) and began to further believe the power that the right foods have over our bodies and how much impact it has on our minds and the way we think.

Valerie Skinner Healthy Personal Chef Charleston, SC

This life-changing experience led me to be much more positive and grateful for all I had and so I began working harder and eventually landed a dream job cooking backstage for concerts on the island. I have prepared food for Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffet, Journey, Morrisey, Jason Mraz and other musicians during that time in my life.

Valerie Skinner of Thyme & Joy Healthy Eating Whole30
Thyme & Joy Whole30 Valerie Skinner

As I continued to do this part-time, I began to put myself out there as my confidence began to grow along with my resume. I took a shot at an executive chef position for a growing health café where I was in charge of the kitchen developing foods that used real simple ingredients that catered not only to the average person, but those that were vegan, on a raw food diet or had food sensitivity issues. It was here that I had fell in love with juicing and began to co-develop juicing programs for our clients.


During this time, I met my husband who is in the military and was stationed on an active submarine. Since he was gone so often, I was able to channel my time into something even bigger than I ever thought possible for my career. Through the café, I met my now friend and business partner and with the help of some other brilliant minds we met along the way, we opened Jar + Fork in Miami, FL in 2015.  Our restaurant was conceptualized around what we all collectively believed about food. This was that we should all have a place to go that serves delicious meals that we WANT to cook but don’t have the time to. Jar + Fork was a fast-casual restaurant that serves real food meals and cold pressed juices using responsibly sourced ingredients in which our customers customize their meals in order to fit THEIR lives.

The military then took us to Charleston South Carolina where I started working at the Whole Foods in Mount Pleasant while I slowly worked on building up Thyme and JOY as a website to share recipes while running a local healthy personal chef service and became a Whole30 approved chef while being the co-host of the Food Conversations Podcast.

As my husbands career in the military came to an end (just after becoming parents during a *cough* major world event in 2020), we moved to the tippy top of Virginia in Winchester in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Right now I work on the blog full time as well as run a small food blog writing agency for other food bloggers. My dream is to keep running thyme and joy sharing how I use my training to create quick and healthy recipes while setting my sights on having a local food truck in Winchester!

5 Random Facts About Me

  • I grew up a total metal music junkie and was raised on Korn & Metallica.
  • I moved to Hawaii after culinary school for no reason and ended up staying for 5 years!
  • I am a former military wife.
  • I grew up on the Jersey Shore but only have an accent when I am there.
  • My wedding cost us $75 and I don’t regret a single thing!

Let’s Connect!