About Us
About CKD Culinary Consulting
CKD Culinary Consulting was started by Linda Blaylock in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020 when the then-budding entrepreneur saw a need for a clear, reliable method to free kidney patients from their confusion, show them how to have their favorite foods, more variety, give them a simplified process, and show them how to successfully build their personalized kidney diet and lifestyle.
After her husband’s diagnosis, they struggled with his diet, and he despised being told he could not have foods he treasured. This sparked a determination in her to figure out how to allow him to have them once again. She truly believed there had to be a way to work with any food, and she was right.
Linda is a Chef honors graduate of Aguste Escoffier Culinary School. ISSA® Certified Nutritionist, Certified Kidney Health Coach, Author, an educational instructor, and a caregiver to her husband who has stage 3 kidney disease.
She was a culinary consultant for American Kidney Fund®, and many of her recipes are available on their Kidney Kitchen® website, she also provided cooking demos, webinars, and educational content for their blog.
She has also taught educational classes in her local area, oversees three online support groups, and does informational guest spots and cooking demonstrations for medical professionals wanting to learn more about the method and recommending it to patients.
She has done cooking demonstrations for the National Kidney Foundation®. She has been in Culinary Entrepreneurs® magazine and has worked with dieticians to further a client’s kidney diet success.
News of her program was also spread through the press, with over 150 outlets covering the publication of her program books.
She enjoys exploring unfamiliar cuisines and adapting them, as well as finding historical recipes to CKD-ify™ and improve.
When her husband received his diagnosis, she was graduating college for business management and prepping a business plan to open a clinic with friends.
The demands of trying to figure out how to “save” her husband were immense. She had to (heartbreakingly) go to the group and tell them she was out. She felt she needed to put 100% of her time into solving the CKD puzzle.
So, within a week of graduating, she turned around and went to culinary school, then followed that with nutrition. The entire time, she was devoted to finding the answers and applying all she was learning into how it fit with CKD.
It took her five years, but thankfully she had been blessed with the ability to focus solely on it, and to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right education, opportunities, and the right circumstances to find every vital answer.
After two years of painstakingly assembling the program, she brought it forward to help others.
Her husband’s lab numbers have remained stable all these years, although, his pants size did go up from all the amazingly tasty foods.
She lives in Minneapolis with her pet bearded dragons, her chubby cat, Butters Karen (some of you will get that reference), and her husband. When she isn’t creating recipes, overseeing her program and groups, filling orders, researching new products, creating, or perfecting recipes, keeping up with the latest CKD news, supporting her clients, or working on her cookbooks …
You will find her gathering with family as often as possible, playing a Pathfinder® card game with her husband and/or friends, frequenting Renaissance Fairs, reading about Native American or Viking history, physics, philosophy, historical cooking, binge watching El Reencuentro Menudo videos online, snuggling her dragons while watching Miranda, Living Single, & Gilmore Girls reruns, historical dramas, Ghost Adventures, Top Chef, or Guy’s Grocery Games with her husband.
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