Unplated: An interview with Cheryl Paswater
Life at the intersection of fermentation, art, and medicine
This conversation is part of the Unplated series, a collection of interviews with folks whose work intersects with food, but who work outside culinary spheres. My hope is that these conversations not only spark your curiosity, but help you think about how what you eat is connected to the world well beyond your plate.
Cheryl Paswater is the Chief Fermentationist of Contraband Ferments and Functional Medicine Practitioner as well as an educator, health coach, sous chef, artist, and writer. She previously co-organized the NYC Ferments Meetup and NYC Fermentation Festival. She has been a contributing writer for Edible Magazine as well as a contributor to the book "Miso, Tempeh, Natto" and is currently working on her first book on fermentation due out sometime in the near-not so near future. She splits her time between Brooklyn, NY and Richmond, VA, along with her partner and her pets: Koji the cat and all her fermentation cultures.
Cheryl and I both met in the world of fermentation, but as is often the case with ferment-loving folks, her interests and expertise extends well beyond the world of food. She has used her experience with food to inform a career in medicine, and her experience as an artist.
JS: First of all, tell me a bit about who you are and what you do. How would you describe your work?
CP: My name is Cheryl Paswater, I run Contraband Ferments in Brooklyn, NY and Richmond, VA. I am a Fermentationist, Health Coach and Functional Medicine Practitioner. I would describe my work in the world as magical, a little chaotic, mission driven and passionate. I love the microbial world that we get to experience through fermentation and our encounters in the world. Fermentation is such a deep love space for me! I got into fermentation on my personal healing journey which is how Contraband Ferments ultimately came about. That lead me into Health Coaching and Functional Medicine as I'm just as equally passionate about people on their healing journeys. They all sort of venn diagramed and well, here we are.
JS: Though you aren't currently working in the world of fermentation, you have a strong background as a fermenter. Tell me about Contraband Ferments: What inspired it, and what was its guiding philosophy?
CP: Actually, I am currently working in the world of fermentation, I've just slowed down a bit as I've been in Functional Medicine School. I've been teaching a. bit in person and online and have been working on some side projects. Contraband Ferments would be best described as my baby...what an experience it has been! I got into fermentation on my own healing journey. I was reading a ton of Michael Pollan, the China Study, Sally Fallon, etc and I was subletting an apartment that summer and the girl I was renting from left her big jar of Kombucha behind. She was like feel free to make kombucha.
I remember one night sitting in the kitchen in 100 degree Brooklyn summer heat staring at that jar and reading my latest health book and having the epiphany that every culture in the world eats fermented foods but us in the USA and we're sickest. Something just clicked for me on another level in that moment and I was like well I'm going to start fermenting. I started with kombucha and was fermenting too much and started giving to friends, then selling to friends making drops around NYC on my bike.
Next thing I knew friends were buying ferments from me and I started a rogue mafia Fementation CSA in Brooklyn of all these friends and friends of friends. I honestly, don't totally know what happened, but it just blew up. I moved my FCSA into the back of a coffee shop, other CSAs, then I had a fridge locked up in the back of an alley for awhile. You would get the code, go put your cash in the jar, take your ferments and then lock it back up and off you went. It was really magical and romantic and a little insane to be honest! However, it was enough money to help me make rent and also to go back to school to study fermentation and health coaching. I started teaching workshops and then that sorta blew up too and I was able to make a huge part of my business just fermentation education. I've loved every moment of this ride!
Fast forward, I was teaching about 300 + workshops and festivals per year in person and was finding myself spending 30-60 minutes at the end of every workshop helping people with their gut health and helping them try to find good practitioners. I just saw how big the gap of disconnect was and I knew how critically important good gut health is. I had been wanting to go to Functional Medicine School for a long time and it was on my radar for in the coming 2-3 years.
Then the pandemic hit and the universe had other plans for me. I pivoted and applied to schools and landed at The School for Applied Functional Medicine and I've loved it! It's a ton of work and I've never studied so hard in my life, but also it's allowed me to open my practice and it's been a wonderful time for me to be able to intersect fermentation and health coaching.
On guiding principles...I guess I have two parts to that. One is that I believe we live in a microbial world that is magical and with all things we should all be living fully, fulfilled, magical, joyful, happy and spirited lives. I don't think Contraband Ferments or even my Functional Medicine Practice can be what they are if I don't personally live my own life to its fullness best I can. The second part is that I believe deeply in eating local, organic food, eating as close to the source, honoring old world food techniques, and sharing those skills with others. Accessibility, education, and helping people bloom are all ways I hope to give back to the world.
JS: You also teach art to children and adults: How does your philosophy as a teacher and artist connect to your philosophy as an eater and a cook?
CP: Yes, I am a artist in my first wave of life and education. I love art and I love teaching art. I think what I've come to realize over the years is that I love teaching creative processes and encouraging my students to try new things, take risks, and be a solid sounding board. I think my life philosophy is my philosophy for everything really. I do the same things in art with my students and I do with my fermentation students.
JS: In recent years, you've moved into functional medicine. Tell me about how your practice in this space is connected to your experiences with art and food.
Anything else you want to tell me?
CP: True true, Functional Medicine and I are having a love affair. (insert evil laugh here) But in all seriousness, Functional Medicine is about getting to the root cause of why someone is having dis-ease or disease in the body. And I think similarly it’s about deep work, taking risks, trying new things, making change and it really does overlap with so much of fermentation and art and also, no client is the same.
Everyone and everything is unique to that person, and their situation, and you have to think creatively and outside the box. Art and fermentation are 100% those same exact things. I like to think of all of it of more as expanding my toolbox and skills. It's honestly been a really wild and beautiful process. People sometimes think I'm nuts for doing so much or being in more than one field of work, and sometimes I even think I might be nuts. However, I believe the world needs all of us to be magical and to live in our truths and we all have different paths and I fully believe the universe reveals what it has for us as we are ready to recive it. I'm truly grateful that I've gotten to be an artist, and a fermenter, and a coach, and a functional medicine practitioner.
Learn more about Cheryl on her website, medical website, podcast, and on social media @contrabandferments
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