THE FLORABELLE STORY
Hi! I’m Liza, the founder of Florabelle Food & Festivities.
My mission for Florabelle is to provide deep nourishment through cooking and the soulful connection that comes from sharing a meal.
I’ve loved cooking for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a large Irish-Italian family taught me that sitting down for a meal is one of the most powerful ways to connect. In my early 20s, I followed my passion cooking by taking culinary courses, volunteering as a chef’s assistant, and testing recipes on friends.
In 2018, I hosted a “How to Make Ravioli” party to celebrate my birthday with friends. A lot of red wine and flour later, we shared a meal that I’ll always remember as the moment Florabelle was born.
For the next few years, I ran Florabelle as a side hustle, teaching private cooking classes in Kansas City and Chicago. I drew inspiration from travels through France, Italy, South Africa, Vietnam, China, and Central America to craft regionally focused menus.
Re-envisioning the Future of Florabelle
In 2021, my life, and Florabelle, changed drastically. I relocated to Los Angeles where I embraced the farm to table food culture and formally studied sustainable food systems at UCLA. Upon moving, I was diagnosed with a gut-related autoimmune disease called Ulcerative Colitis. My little Italian heart broke when I was told to cut out gluten, dairy, alcohol, and much more to manage my unmanageable symptoms.
But I love a challenge and focused on the foods I could eat by redefining my philosophy on what nourishment meant to me. I didn’t want to sacrifice fun or flavor in the name of health, so I taught a series of the best damn gluten and dairy-free cooking classes out of my Venice beach bungalow.
In early 2022, my health declined to where I could no longer teach formal classes. But I wanted to continue in any way I could, so I leaned into my love for gardening and spearheaded an after-school culinary program at the Venice High School! On Tuesday afternoons, my students would gather in the school’s abundant garden and we would make plant-based recipes from produce we pulled straight from the ground.
Despite my best efforts to heal with food, medication, and lifestyle changes, in February 2023 I underwent emergency surgery to remove my large intestine and had an ostomy bag placed (#humbled). I moved back to Kansas City to focus fully on healing and being with family.
Over the next year, eating became a highly complex challenge I was determined to solve. I faced two more major surgeries to reconstruct my digestive system in hopes of eventually removing my ostomy bag (which I lovingly named Gladys). As much as I appreciated Gladys for saving my life, I elected to have a “j-pouch” created — a decision that added new layers to my already complicated relationship with food.
In early 2024, I completed my final surgery and said goodbye to Gladys (yay!). Rebuilding my body from the ground up provided me the opportunity to learn the power of herbalism, eating locally, and Ayurvedic medicine.
As my health improved, I made the decision to go all in on Florabelle (and start eating gluten and dairy again!). I left my marketing career to run the business full time and dove headfirst into culinary education. I worked events on regenerative farms in Colorado and California, cooked on the line at two beloved Kansas City restaurants, and staged at three Michelin Green Star restaurants in London and Italy.
In 2025, Florabelle relocated to Salt Lake City. The landscape, community, and growing farm-to-table movement made it the perfect place to put down roots.
Thank you to everyone who has supported Florabelle over the years. It’s a dream come true to share my love for cooking, nutrition, and sustainability with so many incredible clients.