Fundamentals of Culinary Medicine
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Program Overview
Subscribe today to start building the skills to bring nutrition advice from the clinic into the kitchen.
Fundamentals of Culinary Medicine is a self-paced online course that turns nutrition science into something physicians and other health professionals can put into practice at the table, not just on a chart. The program builds the culinary skills, behavior-change strategies, and clinical grounding needed to help patients turn nutrition advice into daily cooking habits, focusing on how home cooking and reduced reliance on ultra-processed foods shape dietary adherence and long-term health.
You will learn the clinical evidence linking home-prepared meals and lower ultra-processed food consumption to better health outcomes—as well as build the hands-on counseling and culinary education skills to act on it. Every module is built around real-world application: overcoming barriers to cooking, using motivational interviewing, recommending culinary resources, and delivering education across clinical, community, and educational settings.
Culinary medicine is a fast-growing discipline that is being implemented in hospitals, health care systems, community programs, and medical schools, and this program will put you at the forefront of it. You will complete the course with a working foundation in culinary medicine and a clear framework for turning nutrition recommendations into achievable kitchen habits.
Delivery Method & Teaching Methodology
This program is fully online in a flexible, asynchronous, self-paced format built for busy physicians and other health professionals. It’s organized into 8 modules, and each includes:
- Expert-led video segments
- Presentations and panel discussions featuring multiple faculty perspectives
- Hands-on exercises paired with video segment to reinforce key skills
The methodology emphasizes applied learning. Rather than nutrition knowledge alone, the program develops practical approaches to counseling patients, addressing barriers, strengthening cooking self-efficacy, and integrating culinary education into care. Participants explore how to deliver culinary medicine through methods like 1:1 coaching, group education, onsite and remote instruction, cooking demonstrations, and interprofessional collaboration, along with reimbursement considerations, nutrition insecurity, and strategies for evaluating culinary medicine programs—so you will leave ready to implement, not just to explain.
Objectives & Highlights
By the end of the program, participants will be equipped to:
- Define the relationship between home cooking, ultra-processed food reduction, dietary adherence, and overall health
- Demonstrate culinary medicine knowledge and skills and apply strategies for empowering patients from various determinants of health to overcome barriers and adopt home cooking behaviors
- Use behavior change strategies and culinary resources to promote healthy nutrition and overall health
- Improve your culinary skills and demonstrate home cooking behaviors to improve personal health
- Summarize the clinical evidence linking reduced UPF consumption and improved home cooking to the prevention and reversal of metabolic diseases and chronic inflammation.
- Tailor culinary “prescriptions” or programs that address specific patient barriers while maintaining cultural relevance and affordability.
- Apply motivational interviewing techniques to help patients transition to action in their home cooking habits, and recommend high-quality culinary resources (apps, budget meal plans, community gardens) that support long-term dietary adherence.
- Demonstrate proficiency in core culinary techniques and adopt home cooking habits that adhere to specific dietary patterns to promote your health goals.
- Incorporate personal culinary practice as a self-care strategy, recognizing how hands-on cooking, meal planning, and healthy eating habits can reduce physician burnout and support sustainable well-being throughout a clinical career
By the end of the course, participants will be able to define the relationship between home cooking, reduced ultra-processed food intake, and health; apply culinary medicine skills to help patients overcome barriers to cooking; use behavior change strategies, including motivational interviewing, to support lasting habits; develop culturally relevant, affordable culinary recommendations tailored to individual patients; and strengthen their own culinary skills and health-promoting practices. Core topics you’ll explore include:
- The history, current definition, and growth of culinary medicine, and its place within Lifestyle Medicine
- Culinary medicine across the lifespan, in health and disease, and within health care systems — illustrated with a real-world case study of program implementation
- The case for home cooking, ultra-processed foods and health, and the pathophysiology of ultra-processed food consumption
- What and how patients should cook, and how home cooking varies across cultures
- Why patients don’t cook: barriers, facilitators, and strategies to build cooking self-efficacy and skills
- Setting up a healthy kitchen: essential tools, food purchasing, food systems and food banks, and health-promoting ingredients
- Cooking with limited time or budget: mise en place, pantry stocking, repurposing leftovers, and one-pot meals
- Behavior change strategies for the kitchen: understanding culinary goals, appreciative inquiry, food language, and active learning
- Delivering culinary education: one-on-one vs. group instruction, onsite vs. remote delivery, and interprofessional collaboration
- Reimbursement, nutrition insecurity, and key resources for culinary medicine — illustrated with a real-world case study of implementation in private practice
- Integrating culinary medicine into medical encounters, cooking demonstrations, and program evaluation
Please note that course topics are subject to change.