Culinary Medicine · Université Laval
Michel Lucas
Researcher · Chef · Full Professor
“From knowledge to
the power to act”
Food is Care
“From knowledge to
the power to act”
Food is Care
“May the force of the gesture reveal your capability”
Founder of Culinary Medicine
Full professor, Université Laval.
Researcher, CHU de Québec.
PhD in nutritional epidemiology. Graduate chef.
Imagine hands kneading dough, the aroma of an onion caramelising, the focused silence of a group tasting together for the first time. Eyes lit up by a sensory Eureka.
It is in these gestures and felt experiences that Culinary Medicine begins — not in a textbook, but in the living experience of a body that discovers and feels.
The discipline
Simply, a capacitating pedagogy of care through food — that is, learning through action — which combines medical knowledge, nutrition science and the culinary arts as a means of intervention to make learning practical and engaging.
“We do not act better by thinking better — we understand better by acting.”
Praxis — reflective action
Train health professionals who embody the gestures that connect care and science — and turn knowledge into the power to act.
I teach at the Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval: Epidemiology and critical appraisal since 2018, and Culinary Medicine since 2022.
Produce rigorous knowledge in nutritional epidemiology so that decisions — clinical, educational, populational — rest on solid ground.
Over 380 publications and presentations, global collaborations from Harvard to New Zealand. Rigor at the service of action.
I act — so that the kitchen becomes a place of reconciliation and meaning, not mental load.
Cooking is not reproducing a recipe — it is giving birth to an embodied understanding. As a graduate chef, I embody and pass on this pragmatism — the art of experience that joins competence and felt experience.
Testimonial
“Heartfelt thanks for all the time you devoted to teaching us. It was a true privilege for all of us to follow this course. What we learned will stay with us for a long time, and most of all, the joy of cooking together every week. You are a true Master Chef — and on top of that, a remarkable teacher. Thank you for your generosity, your passion, and your inspiring guidance.”
“The taste of care, the care of taste.”
“To nourish the transformation of care through and for food:
research, find, teach, cook
— so that knowledge becomes act.”
— Michel Lucas
Lectures, training, research partnerships or institutional collaborations — let's discuss what Culinary Medicine can bring to your context.
Contact meSeasonal activity
Once a year, primarily in December, I open a few dates to cook at your home — family gatherings, office parties, private receptions. Signature canapés, prepared on-site, plated with care.
Quebec City region · Minimum 10 guests · 2 weeks advance booking
