VIDEO – Just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, we bring you a couple of recipes from Yolanda Banks – including a traditional Thai dish – larb gai. Yolanda has appeared on the Food Network, Good Morning Texas, At Home Live, and various affiliates around the country sharing her passion for food.
In early 2011, Yolanda made her first appearance of many on CBS 11 in Dallas and showed viewers how to host a Super Bowl party, featuring healthy fare. That segment turned into a weekly feature called, Fresh is Fabulous. Also, in 2011 she was hired as Culinary Coordinator at Duo All Things Culinary in Dallas, where she teaches cooking lessons twice a month and oversees the culinary program. In the fall of 2011, Yolanda, began assisting celebrity chef Kent Rathbun with his Elements line.
In the fall of 2010, Yolanda was the featured chef at the first-ever NFL Fit for You event in Washington, D.C. The event featured the womenʼs apparel line, and benefited the NFLʼs Play 60 movement, which encourages children to get at least 60 minutes of activity a day. Yolanda also began teaching classes at Austinʼs flagship Whole Foods Store, with the first class featuring her, Healthy Tailgating Series.
In 2006, along with welcoming a baby boy, Yolanda’s first cookbook, Cooking For Your Man, Broadway Books, was published. In 2007, Yolanda launched her business and website, Fresh Is Fabulous. Fresh Is Fabulous gives her an opportunity to share her knowledge of all things food, and allows her to do what she was born to do; teach and inspire people to cook fresh, simple meals using seasonal, local ingredients with a global twist.
Yolanda has donated her time to several charitable organizations; including, Boys and Girls Club, Meals on Wheels, DC Central Kitchen, various Food Banks, and Ronald McDonald House. In 2002, she started the annual Cook for the Cure Dinner, which benefits the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, raising over $40,000, in 5 years.
