06/01/2026
Meet Nicole, our Executive Chef at California Hot Springs.
Nicole’s path into cooking didn’t begin in a restaurant,
it began in service.
When she noticed there were no meals being offered to the homeless on Saturdays, she stepped in.
What felt overwhelming to others felt natural to her. She found a kind of flow in feeding people; one that would guide her into larger kitchens, eventually cooking for hundreds at a time and transforming institutional food systems from processed to fresh, farm-to-table.
Alongside her work as a chef, Nicole was raising her children, gardening, and cooking nearly every meal from scratch.
Food, for her, has always been about nourishment and connection.
Over time, her path expanded beyond the kitchen, into a deep relationship with water through aquatic therapy and underwater dance, and into a long-held vision she calls the Immersive Aquatic Dinner Theatre.
When she connected with this project, it wasn’t just alignment…
It felt like a shared vision already in motion.
As Executive Chef, Nicole is bringing the full culinary experience to life.
From kitchen design and sourcing to menu development and recipe creation, her work is rooted in what she calls the Cuisine of Living Waters - a way of cooking that reflects the oceans, rivers, and springs that nourish the land.
Each dish is designed not just for flavor,
but to express place, hydration, and connection.
For Nicole, this project represents a convergence of everything she’s been building toward - food, water, and the deeper systems that connect them.
Her hope is simple but powerful: that people feel nourished, at ease in their bodies, and subtly reconnected to something essential.
To her, “right relationship” means recognizing that we are part of a living system. That the way we source, prepare, and share food can support the health of people, land, and water as a whole.
We’re honored to have her shaping this part of California Hot Springs!
