In Bree Chumley’s Cleveland kitchen, nothing goes to waste—and everything tells a story.
Dried citrus peels become powdered gold. Scraps of beet greens, onion skins, and black lentils turn into broths, salts, or something that mimics beluga caviar. The scent of the air might reveal grapefruit zest or, on a more adventurous day, smoked cantaloupe.
Today, Bree is a plant-based personal chef, zero-waste advocate, and the creator of more than 150 handmade spice blends. But before she was known for vegan cheese and culinary creativity, she was the person who always carried a camera in her purse, capturing weddings, events, and her own quiet obsessions with food and flowers.
Once a photographer, now a chef, and always a multi-passionate at heart, Bree proves that creativity doesn’t disappear when we change careers. It simply finds a new medium.
Decades of Creative Work: Behind the Lens, Before the Line
Long before Bree stepped behind the cutting board, she was behind the lens. Photography was her first creative passion, and one that started early. Bree got her first camera in second grade and, as she puts it, has been “the person with a camera in my purse no matter where I’m going” ever since.
As a teenager, Bree chose to attend a vocational school for commercial photography instead of a traditional high school, later studying fine art photography in college. She would go on to build an impressive creative career as a professional photographer, with weddings and large-scale social events as her bread and butter. In between, she pursued creative side projects and even shot food and floral stock photography for Shutterstock.
After two decades of professional work, Bree says photography is still ingrained in her, but she was starting to feel ready for something new. Something different to have a fire about.
A Plant-Based Life, Long Before Culinary School
At sleepovers as a child, Bree would come prepared.
“I used to bring a raw potato to sleepovers,” she says. “I’d bake it in the morning—I didn’t want cereal, I wanted to cook something.”
The adults, catching on to her love of cooking, would suggest toppings or ask Bree if she’d like to cook an egg alongside with it. One small act of autonomy led to another, and by the time she was 10 or 11, she was regularly making her own meals. By 13, Bree made a New Year’s resolution to be plant-based, and it stuck with surprising ease. She claims January 1, 1997 as her first official “veg-anniversary.”
Given her curiosity about food and her decades of home cooking, one might think culinary school was a natural next step when Bree got the urge to try something new. But according to Bree, she had “zero inkling” of pursuing it professionally.
That all changed with a single ad.
A Vegan Clears a Hurdle to Pursue a Culinary Degree
When Bree saw an online ad for plant-based education, she thought it too good to be true. A one-off cooking class, or perhaps something more experiential. But when she realized it was actually a full culinary degree program, she started cooking up a new plan.
“Honestly, it was really as simple as overthinking the advertisement I got for Escoffier,” Bree says, laughing. “I never thought I wanted to go to culinary school…but when I saw it was a legit plant-based program with an associate’s degree, I was like, this sounds too good to be true.”
Her hesitation with traditional culinary school came down to one key issue: butchering meat. Once Bree realized her fear of knives, or more accurately, meat and knives together, was lifted, she was immediately sold.
“The relief and ease of a program where I could study the arts of culinary techniques without EVER worrying about butchering meat was a gigantic obvious moment to me,” she says. “Plant-based culinary arts programs eliminated a fear I had and that was apparently the only motivation I needed for a new endeavor to completely enthrall me.”
She made a quick decision to act fast and apply. “It happened in a matter of more than two weeks but less than a month—I applied, I got in, I was excited, and I just kind of took off with it.”
*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.
From Extra Credit to Crowd Favorite: Vegan Cheese as a New Medium
Once at Escoffier, Bree found the space and encouragement to push her culinary creativity further. After years of visual storytelling through photography, Bree quickly discovered that the kitchen could be just as expressive. Vegan cheese became her favorite medium, and she started experimenting almost weekly—first as extra credit, then simply for the joy of it.
“Once I realized vegan cheese was cool to do as extra projects, I tried to do one almost every week,” she says.
Bree’s handmade vegan cheeses range from herby wheels to whimsical Swiss-style rounds.
As she progressed through the program, Bree began testing her skills outside the classroom. At the Cleveland Garlic Festival, which took place just six months into her culinary school experience, Bree entered a cooking competition. She entered with her version of a bánh mì sandwich, which turned out to be a massive hit.
“I got some really great feedback,” Bree says, “and I ran out of supplies that day because people came after the competition was over to get another sample.”
A few months later, Bree brought her vegan cheese creations to a local pop-up. She’d gotten a shoutout in a Cleveland newspaper beforehand, but didn’t expect much of a turnout. Joking with herself, she planned to stay from 5 PM until she sold out, assuming that might take all night. Instead, her cheeses were such a hit, she sold out within the first hour.
At the Waterloo Vegan Market, Bree served up small-batch vegan cheeses, dips, and spice blends.
Slowing the Simmer to Stay Creative
Bree’s early success was exciting, but also had her rethinking what a future in food might actually look like. In the first few weeks of cooking school, she recalls the early “rockstar mentality” of all the students—the excitement of being in the kitchen, with big dreams of one day opening a restaurant. She, too, felt that excitement, considering potentially opening a food truck after school.
But while Bree was thrilled by the turnout of her pop-ups, she was also overwhelmed by what it took to pull those off. It was her first experience of doing it all by herself: the service, transactions, cleanup, delivery. Not to mention all the recipe tinkering and the time to make the various vegan cheeses as for her business endeavor, Bree Makes Brie. “I made more than I could comfortably carry in cheese,” Bree recalls.
Charcuterie, sauces, and vegan cheese—all handcrafted for Bree’s April market booth in Cleveland.
This experience gave Bree a glimpse of what a future could be like working in a fast-paced restaurant or having her own food truck. It wasn’t just physically demanding; it reminded her of her photography career, where she noticed a pattern. Her photography days were fast-paced, high-pressure, and full of fleeting interactions. Bree realized the hustle of pop-ups or working the line in a restaurant could feel eerily familiar.
Instead, she was beginning to envision what a different speed of life might look like. Bree is also managing Type 1 diabetes, which makes her mindful of her own health and stamina. She started dreaming up culinary ideas of something slower, more intentional. A speed of life that gave her space to create and explore and engage differently without the potential of burning out.
Plant-Based and Personalized: A Personal Chef Career Takes Shape
After graduation, Bree found work in an unexpected way: personal cheffing. Like many creatives, she actually found her path forward by first learning what it was she was not interested in pursuing. Restaurant life felt too fast-paced, catering too involved, and markets and pop-ups, though exciting, left her drained.
One thing Bree did know? Cleveland had been quietly building up its own vibrant plant-based community, despite Ohio’s “meat and potatoes” reputation. As it turned out, she didn’t have to go looking for clients, they found her.
While teaching vegan cheese-making classes during her externship at the French bistro Tartine, Bree connected with a local family of four who attended one of her classes. Fully plant-based and managing a handful of dietary restrictions—no oil, no sugar, only whole wheat, and a corn allergy—they asked if Bree would consider being their personal chef. Her response? “I hadn’t until now, but sure! Let’s talk!”
Soon after, she began cooking for the family regularly, meeting their needs with creativity and care. While some might see the restrictions as limiting, Bree sees something else entirely.
“I get the most satisfaction feeding people who can’t eat what they want to—because of allergies or medical issues—and giving them something delicious that still feels familiar,” she says.
Some of her creations? Savory “beluga caviar” made from black lentils, bleu cheese crafted from tempeh crumbles with spirulina and butterfly pea, black garlic cheddar, and even full holiday menus for Hanukkah and Passover, each tailored to meet their dietary needs without sacrificing flavor or tradition.
Bree’s vegan Passover menu honors tradition with creativity—think matzo ball soup, morel seitan brisket, and ramp-studded challah. For Hanukkah, Bree reimagines the classics with homemade tofu sour cream, sweet potato latkes, and Ceylon cinnamon babka.
Through word-of-mouth, Bree expanded her client base. She’s now also the behind-the-scenes chef for two other clients: a professional athlete with massive meal prep needs, and a store manager looking for convenient, nourishing options. Instead of a restaurant kitchen, Bree gets to do this from the comfort of her home.
Turning Scraps Into Gold: Bree’s Zero-Waste Approach to Culinary Creativity
When Bree is preparing meals for clients, the process begins in her own kitchen—quiet, colorful, and deeply intentional. Sometimes the food she makes is delivered ready to eat; other times, Bree finishes it in her clients’ kitchens, bringing everything together at the last possible moment so it’s as fresh and flavorful as can be.
Whichever way Bree’s cooking, she draws from an ever-growing library of flavor. Lining her shelves are more than 150 handmade spice blends, each one a vibrant expression of resourcefulness, creativity, and care. Her kitchen doubles as a kind of living archive: jars of Meyer lemon dust, grapefruit peel, horseradish, smoked cantaloupe. Bits and pieces that others might toss become powders, broths, salts…small alchemies that elevate every dish.
Bree’s handmade blends are made from dehydrated food scraps and full of flavor.
“I take the time to dehydrate and repurpose otherwise disposable pieces of all fruits and vegetables,” Bree says, “so that every part of the food is unwasted.”
And it’s not just her clients who benefit. Bree’s blends have found their way into cocktails, pastries, and savory creations crafted by bartenders and bakers across Cleveland. Now, she’s working to expand this part of her work through an Etsy shop—another outlet for her creativity, and one more way to let nothing go to waste.
More Plans to Savor
The best part about being a multi-passionate creative? The ideas are always simmering.
Through Bree’s externship making vegan cheese, she discovered that she really loved teaching about cheese as much as creating it. She hopes to eventually add another spoke in her creative wheel with a focus on teaching plant-based and vegan techniques. At the very least, she wants to spark more conversation around this way of cooking and eating, because in her view, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. “You don’t have to be vegan to enjoy vegan food,” she says. “It can just be an occasional decision, a conversation opener.”
Her photography roots still run deep, too. From styling plates and capturing standout food photos during culinary school to designing colorful menus and product packaging, her visual sensibility has never really left. Lately, she’s even been considering returning to food photography in a more focused way.
“So every day,” she says, “it’s kind of a different set of questions: What do I want to do with this? What do I want? What can I focus on?”
Calling All Plant-Based Enthusiasts
Bree’s story is proof that not all culinary careers follow the same recipe. Some are sautéed slowly and steadily. Others are stirred together with whatever ingredients you’ve picked up along the way. And sometimes, creativity doesn’t end up in a restaurant kitchen at all…it ends up in your home, your spice cabinet, or your camera lens.
When asked about starting a second career, Bree encourages students to jump right in: “If you’re excited to start, then it’s not too late. That’s the sign.” Her advice? If it comes naturally, don’t second guess it. And if you, too, were the kid bringing a potato to sleepovers, maybe it’s time to turn that curiosity into something more.
If you’re inspired by Bree’s journey, Escoffier’s Plant-Based Culinary Program could help you shape a path that’s uniquely yours. Learn more today and take the next step in your culinary adventure.
