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Our Credentials

I am a three-time bestselling author who built one of the longest-running food websites in the world, Steamy Kitchen, back before people even knew what “social media” was. Over the past 20+ years, Steamy Kitchen has had more than 55 million unique visitors and 410 million page views. We’ve been featured on the Today Show, The Early Show, Fox Business, Oprah, Martha Stewart Living Radio, and in Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Chef.

I have taught on national TV, been a columnist for Discovery Health, The Learning Channel, The Tampa Tribune, Creative Loafing Magazine, Las Vegas Wellness Magazine and had recipes published in publications and books you have probably seen on your mom’s coffee table. I’ve built companies, created passive income, and cracked the code on the 4-Hour Workweek dream. I have even been one of the chef stars on ABC’s Recipe Rehab television shows.

But none of that describes who I really am.

Jaden Rae

I was born in Hong Kong and raised in the midwest. My earliest years were filled with chaos, trauma, and a desperate need for safety.

As a kid, my escape came in the form of Choose Your Own Adventure books, the ones where you could make a choice and suddenly find yourself on a completely different path. Those stories gave me a sense of control I didn’t have in real life. Looking back, I can see now that they weren’t just books. They were blueprints.

And somehow, without even knowing it, I’ve been writing my own version ever since.

 

The Steamy Years

In 2005, I started Steamy Kitchen on a hunch, and a whole lot of homemade Chinese recipes from my mom. I didn’t have formal training, but I was scrappy, curious, and willing to teach myself everything: food photography, video editing, coding, email marketing, live TV. I studied Oprah, Martha, Rachael. I built my own imaginary board of directors, asked myself what they would do, and then did it.

And it worked.

I got a cookbook deal within six months. National TV spots followed. Brands called. Sponsors paid. I built an entire career out of wok-fried rice and digital hustle before social media even existed. I mastered the metrics. I learned how to win the algorithm and built a Tim Ferriss “4-Hour Workweek” business.

And then I lost myself.

When the Numbers Became the Point

There was a stretch of years where everything looked perfect from the outside. I had hacked the perfect passive income business and money was rolling in without doing much work. We started offering giveaways and sponsored posts.

In my abundant free time, I was parenting, quilting, raising chickens, and growing aquaponic lettuce on five acres of land.

But I was miserable.

I had time, freedom, money and a deep, hollow ache that wouldn’t go away. What started as burnout quietly turned into depression. What felt like creative freedom became isolation. I stopped writing for joy and started publishing for numbers. I knew how to go viral, but I couldn’t feel myself anymore.

I was disconnected. From my work, from my body, and from the life I had built. I spent years bouncing between different antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, all of which just left me feeling like a zombie.

And Then Everything Changed

My son Nathan was diagnosed with epilepsy, and it forced me into full-blown crisis mode. And despite my best efforts, none of the medications helped. The pain only got worse. He was suicidal. And in trying to save him, I accidentally started saving myself.

I discovered cannabis medicine, functional movement, and alternative healing. I watched my son’s symptoms ease. I watched our family shift. I gave up a 29-year alcohol addiction.

And I started experimenting in the kitchen again, not with recipes, but with remedies. CBD oils. Herbal infusions. Anti-inflammatory teas. And in the process, I found my way into a new world: plant medicine, psychedelics, and deep ancestral healing.

I even grew strong enough to leave a lifeless marriage.

The Shift

Seeking alternatives to the traditional meds that had let me down, I researched psilocybin to heal my own body and mind, wrote the Microdosing Guide & Journal, a comprehensive guide to safely creating and tracking a medicinal mushroom journey, and travelled to psychedelic conferences to teach what I had learned.

Along the way, I met Alex. It turned out that we had actually went to the very same high school almost 40 years ago! We even graduated the in the same class…but our social circles never touched. 

I was the nerdy Asian over achiever with a “dragon mom” and he was a star football player and wrestler. When we visited our old alma mater to reminisce about our high school years, I pointed out all the advanced classrooms where I diligently studied, and he showed me the spot he was familiar with – the dungeon where detention was held. 

We married, my husband and I spent a full year living on Tribal land, as a guest of a federally recognized Native American tribe, to help them build the state’s fastest-growing cannabis labs. Together, we created a production facility from the ground up, manufacturing pure cannabis oils. Our products powered brands like Stiiizy, Cookies, Planet 13, The Presidential, Rove, Curaleaf, and many more.

 

Leveraging my lab experience, I began formulating potent skincare topicals and wellness tinctures using peptides: compounds that support the body on a cellular level. What started in a cannabis lab expanded into a full exploration of natural, effective, science-backed ways to support healing through the skin.

Somewhere along the way, social platforms decided I was too controversial. My accounts were shadowbanned or wiped entirely for speaking openly about psychedelic healing, cannabis and peptides, erasing over two decades of community in a single algorithmic sweep. That’s when I realized how much of my voice had been shaped to fit someone else’s rules.

I stopped spinning for social and started building something better.

 

This Is My Real Work

These days, I don’t care about pageviews or algorithms. I don’t do social media. I’m not chasing comments or engagement. I just want to write. I want to create from a place that’s real and whole and sovereign. Whether five people read my words or fifty thousand, I’m finally writing what I want again.

I’m reclaiming Steamy Kitchen. Not as a food blog, but as my space. A living library of everything I’ve written, everything I’ve created, and everything I still want to explore.

If You’re Still Reading!

Thank you.

I’m not here to be everyone’s favorite. I’m here to live honestly and share what I’ve learned. If something I’ve written speaks to you, I hope you stick around.

Just me.
 Writing.
 Healing.
 Creating magical moments.
 And choosing my own adventure every damn day.

Vibe Good,
Jaden