Aloha!
I’m Chef Kyra Mirian Bramble.
Oh wow. Where to even begin my story?
I’m a Northern Californian girl who grew up between the redwood forests and wine country of Sonoma County who grew up on tour with the Grateful Dead, and used my innate passion for hospitality to work my way up the food chain (pun intended).
I began working in the kitchen in local restaurants when I was sixteen and fell as much in love with the fast-paced environments as I did with hospitality. When I moved to San Francisco at eighteen, I continued hospitality work and attended the California Culinary Academy’s Le Cordon Bleu program. My early twenties were a blur of long days and late nights working all positions available in the city’s restaurants and nightlife, supporting production and dancing at music festivals, and then long international sabbaticals where I would backpack and volunteer on organic farms, falling deeper in love with food and the stories woven into each culture’s cuisines.
When I was twenty-five I had what I now refer to as my “quarter-life crisis” – and I quit restaurant work to find something easier on my body and my spirit. I quit restaurants after a decade for good. I tried my hand at travel writing. I worked for innovative winemakers in sales and marketing. I learned how to design websites and manipulate basic code. I took a doula certification and worked to support natural birth education. I studied circus arts and learned how to fly. I did everything I could to find meaning and purpose.
But, it truly was when I started volunteering to teach inner-city teens healthy cooking that I found my calling combining my love of food with my love of people. I continued teaching, and in the process of this, relearned how to love the art of cooking.
At the time, I was heavily involved in the yoga community and was asked to cater a yoga retreat in the Joshua Tree Desert. That retreat changed my life! It still to this date ranks as one of the most difficult gigs I’ve had, cooking in intense winds and heat on camping equipment with nothing but propane stoves and coolers in my open-air kitchen, but something shifted in me that had been dormant. I felt alive, empowered, and innovative. I decided that cooking for others with love and intention would be my path.
After a decade of city life, I moved to Maui and began my journey to where I am today. I threw myself into cooking, yoga, holistic health, and wellness, and allowed myself the space to explore my true calling.
Now, I still call Maui home, and my work and passions intermingle through private chef work and specialty catering.
My private chef company (formerly Chef Kyra Bramble) outgrew itself, with more requests then I was able to handle alone, and so I expanded into Lotus Chefs, where my incredible community of female chefs who share my ethos can shine as well.
About the time that Lotus Chefs formed, I became pregnant with my daughter, and during maternity leave and early motherhood took a step back from constant onsite cooking to a more managerial and hostess role. I still love dropping in and visiting old clients, supporting my staff, and putting my own special touches on dishes and tablescapes – but I am incredibly grateful to have the space to be at home with my young daughter.
In my off time I’m on mama duty first, and then from there I am constantly learning about new food, developing recipes, doing yoga or at the gym, hiking mountains, scaling waterfalls, and surfing small waves on my big board. I have always loved to travel for both work and pleasure and love eating my way across cultures, finding inspiration equally in Thai street markets and Napa fine dining restaurants (but now I tend to travel more through my cookbooks!).
Food is my medicine, my art, and my life’s purpose. Nothing brings me more joy than sharing it with the many visitors here in Maui! After a glorious decade here on the island, I’m still discovering new fruit, new stories, and new ways to bring food from the farm to the table. I love classic cooking, but I also love challenging myself to customize menus with seasonal produce, various food preferences, or dietary necessities.
I like to say I “cook pretentious food in non-pretentious settings” and “healthy food that doesn’t taste healthy” – always working to surprise and inspire those around me, and in turn myself.
Overall I am just incredibly grateful for this life, this island, and the opportunities I’ve found that allow me to do what I love for a living. I can’t wait to see what recipe, opportunity, or adventure is next!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting my dream, my community, my family with your patronage. I promise to do all in my power to deliver you the best meal you’ll have on Maui!
