Why I Created Family Table Reset: When Dinner Becomes a Battle

"Eggs make me puke," my five-year-old niece said, looking up at me from her plate.

After 30 years teaching cooking to 50,000+ students, I've watched dinner become a battleground in too many homes. 

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When dinner becomes a battle, you've lost control of your table - but not in the way you think. Here's how to take it back without force or fights.

I shared a reel recently about one small shift that can change everything at dinner - you decide what's served, your kids decide what goes on their plate. I didn't expect the response it got. So many parents wrote back:

"I made dinner and they asked for something else."

"I cooked two meals tonight."

"I'm exhausted."

Here's what I want you to know: There's no shame in this. None. We all want to make our family happy - our kids, our husbands. (Husbands do this too). We want to nourish them. Food is our love language.

But we also have crazy busy lives. And the dinner table should be for eating and talking and connecting - not arguing over what everyone will eat, not short-order cooking, not begging someone to take just one more bite.

My great nieces and nephews came to visit - five and six - sweet, spirited, and full of opinions. I put dinner on the table and immediately heard, "I don't want this. Do you have something different?"

It brought me right back to when my niece went through her cereal only stretch. My sister was convinced she'd waste away and even called the doctor. (The doctor said it was totally fine if she ate cereal every day, every meal -for a month. When she was ready to eat something else, she would.) One weekend she stayed with me and asked for eggs. I felt victorious - progress! I made them, put the plate in front of her, and she looked up at me and said:

"Eggs make me puke."

These are all the reasons why I created Family Table Reset.

You made dinner. Your kid took one look and said, "I'm not eating that." So you made something else. Or you made multiple meals for multiple kids. Sound familiar?

Here's what's actually happening: Somewhere along the way, you handed over control of your dinner table. And now you're exhausted.

What if you took control back? Not through force. Not through battles. Through clarity about who's actually in charge.

Family Table Reset: Virtual January through June 2026

Six months. One hour a month on Zoom. Two cohorts (12:15-1:15 PM ET and evening cohort TBD).

Every month, I teach you a framework plus recipes that put YOU back in control while still giving your kids choice. We're cooking AND talking at the same time - about the guilt, the judgment from other people, the partners who undermine you, and how to hold boundaries without feeling like a monster.

Here's what we're covering:

January: The One-Meal Framework (How to stop making multiple dinners)

February: The Exposure Strategy (Why 8-15 times matters and how to actually do it)

March: The Buy-In Method (Getting them involved so they actually want to eat it)

April: The Choice Framework (Teaching them to navigate options without you managing every bite)

May: The Favorite Food Reset (Making what they love work within YOUR framework)

June: The Survival Plan (Holding boundaries when you're already exhausted)

This isn't a recipe class. It's a framework for taking control back.

Can't join live? Every session is recorded.

Join by December 31st and get one month free. 6 months for 250.

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