Who we are
We are friends and partners who share a passion for great food, for cooking and believe in the value of eating together. Since we are also conscious about the environment we appreciate the vegan and vegetarian kitchen with all its colorful possibilities. We also believe that a flexitarian or ‘Blue Zone’ diet can offer an accessible, step in the right direction for many. We all live a very active lifestyle and combine sports and meditation as part of our daily routine. Moreover, we appreciate the power of a green smoothie and want to show you the benefits of cooking with seaweed, as the most nutrient dense vegetable on the planet. Seaweed has a long culinary tradition, that is missing from most Western kitchens. We want uncover and share that lost wisdom, and provide easy and tasty seaweed kitchen recipes that work for all ages and add that little extra to your plate.
About Us
Keith Chamarette
Keith has over twenty years’ of experience as a business strategist and marketing consultant, delivering go-to-market plans for established global brands and start-ups. Since Covid, Keith has also been supporting entrepreneurs by providing business coaching and teaching of marketing via Zoom.
In his free time he is interested in neuroscience, psychology, education and human optimization. He enjoys cycling, adventure holidays, yoga, gardening and cooking for family and friends. He also embraces the challenges and joys that come with being a father of three children.
Julie Kreis
Julie has been working in event management after her studies of „Cultural and Business studies'' at the University of Passau. She worked with theatres and cultural institutions and supported them to increase their ticket sales, she optimized internal communication structures and implemented customized software solutions for their work flow.
Travelling has always been a great passion and she combined work and studies with destinations to Australia, Argentina and Spain, where she also met her husband. In her free time she enjoys a great yoga session, some ballet or barre workout and a good run.
Fabian Kreis
Fabian worked as a professional car designer and formed the shapes and exteriors of well-known Japanese and Chinese car brands for almost 15 years now. Today he focuses on children’s education and founded the online platform www.fabisdesign-kids.com. Here he wants to inspire young children online to get creative offline with paper and pencil in order to gain more self-confidence and enhance problem solving skills.
In his free time he loves to do races with our eldest son on the bike and him running. They are the early birds of the family and often leave the house before 7am.
Get to know us
Meet Keith
How did your seaweed passion start?
My seaweed journey started with sushi, via the nori sheets that are used to encase many rolled sushi varieties. I was also intrigued to explore seaweed via my enjoyment of samphire - the salty sea vegetable (a bit like skinny asparagus), which has a similar taste profile to some seaweeds. I love cooking and indeed exploring the taste of different food from around the world - often as part of my travels.
Why do you think more people should eat (more) seaweed?
As I hit middle age, I became increasingly conscious of wanting to eat more healthy food and seaweed appeared to tick a lot of boxes for immediate health benefits and also in a preventative way by supporting gut health and immunity. I’ve become intrigued by the extraordinary longevity, health and happiness of residents of ‘blue zones’, including Okinawa where consumption of kombu and wakame seaweed varieties is exceptionally high. It appears that modern western diets have lost touch with knowledge from the past and other cultures. I believe it’s time to introduce this wisdom back into today’s diets.
Where do you want to be in 10 years from now?
I will have moved from my current home in London, closer to the countryside, and hopefully closer to the sea. I would like to blur the lines between my working environments and my exploration of the world. I would also like to support and launch more brands and businesses that can make a positive social and environmental impact.
Meet Julie
How did your seaweed passion start?
For a very long time I was unaware that there is so much more to explore in the world of seaweed except for sushi and miso soup, which I has always been a big fan of. I remember being in Tokyo with my husband and we always got some Makis or Onigiris for dinner. This felt as easy and natural as getting bread from the bakery here in Germany. We enjoyed those handy seaweed snacks almost every single day and I was starting to wonder if there has been a European tradition in eating seaweed or where had it gone? When we started to have children a few years ago, I got more and more interested in food and made my food choices more conscious. It was then that I discovered that seaweeds have some superpowers that all our family members should benefit from.
Why do you think more people should eat (more) seaweed?
During my second pregnancy I remember having a lot of vegan sushi at the office in Frankfurt and at that point I didn’t even realise how important iodine was for a balanced pregnancy. I started to really cook with seaweed on a regular basis after giving birth to our second son and felt that it was an easier transformation to getting back to “normal” with a regular intake of iodine in my diet and the other nutrient boost that comes along when eating seaweed. I just had small amounts of seaweed almost daily and noticed that my memory functions and hair loss weren’t as heavy as after my first pregnancy. Moreover, I felt a quicker recovery of my old vitality and activism. Now I know that seaweed is such a nutrient dense food: high in minerals and all kinds of vitamins and that is what helped by body to recover. Moreover, I now love and understand the Korean tradition of the birthday soup even more: Miyeok Guk. In our stories I will soon show you my interpretation of this powerful soup with great recharge functions.
Where do you want to be in 10 years from now?
I imagine settling at some point again and I would love to live close to the ocean with my family. I want to feel the positive and regenerative energy of the ocean around me and want to continue with what we have started here with this seaweed adventure. I love the creation of new recipes. My goal is to gather everything together in a cooking book and write about the highlights of our journey in order to spread the positive insights on the seaweed kitchen to a wider audience.
Meet Fabian
How did your seaweed passion start?
Before the time seaweed became part of our daily family table and I became aware of the differences in taste and health benefits, I enjoyed green wakame salads at restaurants and sushi. I have been working for over ten years for a Japanese car brand and therefore made many trips to Japan as well. Over there I got in touch with the Japanese seaweed kitchen in a very traditional way. It was great to go out for dinner with Japanese colleagues and have them recommend dishes to and tell me the origins or history behind those food and dishes or ways they were served.
Why do you think more people should eat (more) seaweed?
I think it is always great to try to make the world a bit greener by keeping your own personal possibilities in mind and seaweed can definitely support that. It is a super healthy possibility to reduce meat consumption without missing any complex proteins nor lacking any nutrition input. And especially the big kelp forests in our oceans are an ally to combat climate change. Those giants are not only the cradle for many baby fish and crustaceans, but they can bind up to 20 times more carbon dioxide from our atmosphere than the equivalent area of forested land. This is quite impressive!
Where do you want to be in 10 years from now?
I share the passion for water and the ocean with my wife and our children and would love to settle somewhere close to the water at some point after our journey. I would love to see our boys grow up by the ocean and want to see them do the first moves on a surf board.. This is definitely a great sport you can to learn easily at an early age and connects you to the elements. Our boys are already hyped about this idea and I am curious to find out what becomes out of it.
Meet Junis & Emilian
Junis Kreis
Junis is 5 years old and a powerful creative mind, who knows exactly what he wants and cares a lot about the wellbeing of others. He loves to draw and make little gifts for friends, family and neighbors or enjoys a long-lasting Lego session with his father in the morning.
What is your favorite seaweed dish?
I love them all and especially in powdered form as a salt substitute on my food. In the afternoon I often enjoy a green algae oat milk foamed with a little cinnamon and coconut sugar on top. Sometimes I get a cookie along with that and I enjoy that very much.
Emilian Kreis
Emilian just turned 3 this year and is a very fast mind, we sometimes wonder how he can only be 3. He is very precise in the way he communicates about what specific seaweed type he wants on his meal or bread. This makes us and others smile a lot.
What is your favourite seaweed dish?
I love to try new foods and to sprinkle seaweed all over my plate. My all time favourite is Dulse, I love it with butter on my kindergarten bread. And since I am not afraid of cold water, I very much look forward to jump into the ocean and harvest some fresh seaweed.
Discover our adventure
We decided to go on an international road trip to learn more about seaweed directly from experts, try new products and want to document this trip with fotos, videos and audio information.