"Food was never supposed to become my language."

Food was never supposed to become Thumn‘s language, yet today it has become the way she tells her story. After leaving a career in architecture and city planning, she found an unexpected creative outlet in cooking, turning intimate dinners into immersive experiences that blend memory, connection and art.

What started around her own dinner table has since led her to create culinary experiences for brands like Salomon and even Olympic athletes, all while staying true to her deeply personal approach. Captured by photographer Tianna Grey, this series celebrates not only the beauty of sharing a meal, but also the resilience, curiosity and courage it takes to begin again.

“Food was never supposed to become my language. If you had asked me a few years ago what I wanted to do with my life, I would have never said cooking. My background is in architecture, and growing up I was probably the last person anyone expected to end up working with food.

Growing up, I was a picky eater. Long list of dislikes, a complicated relationship with food, even though I was surrounded by it: my dad is an incredible chef, my mom an incredible baker. Good food was always in the house. I just didn’t always let it in.

Three years ago I got really sick, and something in me needed to do something new with my hands. I started testing recipes alone, then having friends over for dinner. I remember lying awake afterward, unable to sleep, not because anything was wrong, but because I wanted to do it again immediately. That restlessness is how I knew. A year ago I stopped treating it as a hobby and made it my full-time work.

“It’s the table, the room, the mood, everything I’m thinking, translated into something people can taste.”

I don’t really think of myself as a cook. I’m an experience curator, an artist who happens to work in food. It’s the biggest outlet for creativity I’ve ever had, because it isn’t just what’s on the plate. It’s the table, the room, the mood, everything I’m thinking, translated into something people can taste. The more I cook, the more I feel pulled toward where I come from, toward the meals that raised me.

Food and sports were always tangled together in my family, soccer especially, a full table waiting after every game. So there’s something full-circle about where my work has landed the last several months: building food experiences for athletes and sports brands. It’s not a stretch from who I am. It’s closer to home than anything else I’ve done.

My relationship with my body hasn’t always been kind or consistent. There have been long stretches where I didn’t feel good in it. Cooking has been the one place that stayed steady, my comfort space, the thing that keeps me sane, food I make to actually feel well. So when Tianna and I planned this shoot, I wasn’t chasing a look. I wanted food to feel like the comfort it’s always been for me, and for once, I wanted to feel as beautiful as I actually am. I think we got there.”