Mark Cleveland and Tanya Fuqua biographies.

Tanya Fuqua is one of the pioneers in the Natural Foods Movement, working with Whole Foods Market in the Southern California region for a dozen years. During that time, she was on the opening team for 10 Whole Foods Markets and managed varied areas such as the floral, house wares, bakery, specialty and marketing departments.

During her time with Whole Foods Markets, she organized and managed the food operations for three Taste of Newports and participated in four Food Festival Fundraisers for Second Harvest Food Bank at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

She also served as a food consultant on joint projects between Whole Foods Markets and the following chefs: Too Hot Tamales - Chefs Mary Sue Milliken & Susan Feniger of Border Grill & Ciudad, Chef Zov Karamardian of Zov’s Bistro and Chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques & A.O.C.

Chef Tanya was classically trained in the Culinary and Pastry Arts and graduated at the top of her class from the California School of Culinary Arts with a Le Cordon Bleu Diploma, receiving the President’s honor every term during her culinary training.

She trained under Chef Alex Scrimgeour at the Alex Restaurant in Hollywood in all areas of the kitchen and was the Executive Chef at the Hotel Halsingland in Haines, Alaska for two summers. At the hotel, she grew her own vegetables and herbs and featured local seafood and food products.

In addition to her duties as a partner at Avanti Cafe, Chef Tanya has a thriving business producing pastries, desserts and custom cakes for special occasions. She has served as an instructor at the Laguna Culinary Arts in Laguna Beach, CA and at Bloomingdales in Newport Beach.

Chef Tanya’s approach to the pastry arts is to incorporate local, regional and organic ingredients while in season and to make baked goods healthier but still delicious.

Chef Mark learned to cook as a child under the tutelage of a wise Italian Grandma, mastered the concepts of healthy California vegetarian cuisine while in college and expanded his repertoire of ingredients, techniques and flavors while living and working for 12 years in Japan, where he learned that Asian ingredients and cooking techniques, while flavorful and exciting, are also proving to have significant, long term health benefits. Simply put, Chef Mark's culinary goal is to create meals, menus & recipes that are both healthy and delicious.Upon his return from Japan, Chef Mark founded BIAN Personal Chef, a service that specialized in naturally nutritious meals with an international flair. He researched and developed menu plans and recipes using holistic natural ingredients for a client base that included many busy professionals, families with diverse tastes and dietary needs and individuals who just love the taste of great food.

Chef Mark has extensive experience teaching holistic cooking techniques and principles at several leading culinary institutions in Southern California such as Sur la Table and Learning Tree University in Newport Beach, CA. He was the featured chef for the Los Angeles Unified School District Nutrition Network ‘Chefs in the Classroom’ Program. He also designed the holistic menu items for the gourmet, boutique restaurant Savoury’s in Laguna Beach, CA and developed product support recipes for Gourmet Pacifica’s line of citrus infused avocado oils.

Chef Mark created 40 original recipes for the SuperFoods RX nutritional and seasonal healthstyle book, which is scheduled for publication in late 2005. He served as SuperFoods RX’s guest chef and created additional original recipes for their TV infomercial. In the print and electronic media arena, Chef Mark has contributed food columns to Whole Life Times and has been featured on prominent websites including the seasonalchef.com and pheast.com.

Chef Mark has catered various events for diverse clientele such as the Senator Barbara Boxer, Dennis Kucinich, Julia Butterfly Hill, Peter Fonda, William Shatner and Keenan Ivory Wayans.