About this Artist
Todo Verde founder Jocelyn Ramirez, is a plant-based chef, college professor, yoga instructor, and advocate for healthy food access in her community. As she navigated through many of her family’s health issues, she was astounded by the lack of access to healthy good food in low income communities of color across Los Angeles.
Jocelyn founded Todo Verde in 2015 with a mission to create delicious and healthy plant-based food inspired by her Mexican and Ecuadorian roots for the Eastside community of Los Angeles. She left her career in higher education to pursue a new path in foodways related to culture and tradition, and references traditional recipes passed down for generations within her family. As she continues to learn about the health benefits of nutrient dense food and healthy ecosystems, she offers knowledge on healthy living with the community through workshops, dialogues, and food demonstrations.
Jocelyn’s background includes degrees in fine art, design and business, and she has also trained at the Matthew Kenney Culinary Institute. Her work has been featured in several press outlets including New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Vice, Spotify, Smithsonian, Bon Appetit, and more. Wanting to share her expertise in delicious plant-based Mexican food, Jocelyn published her first cookbook, La Vida Verde: Plant-Based Mexican Cooking with Authentic Flavor (Page Street) in 2020. In 2017, Jocelyn co-founded Across Our Kitchen Tables, an organization focused on uplifting women of color in the food industry, that hosts skillshares and an annual symposium. She currently sits on the culinary advisory board for Food Forward and the leadership board for the Los Angeles Food Policy Council.