Monika L. Jensen, chef, author and artist

The kitchen came first

Monika grew up in a house where dinner was the event of the day. She learned classic technique the long way, by standing next to people who cooked for a living, breaking down whole fish, building stocks that took two days, and learning that seasoning is a decision you make five times, not once.

Years of professional cooking gave her the range you see across The Balanced Plate: French braises, Mexican salsas, Moroccan spice, Greek salads, and American comfort food that has been quietly rebuilt to carry less sugar and fewer refined carbs.

Why keto alternatives on every page

The book exists because of a very ordinary problem. People she loved were managing diabetes, insulin resistance and stubborn weight, and every low carb cookbook she picked up asked the household to cook twice, one dinner for the person on keto, one for everyone else.

So she wrote the recipes the other way around. Cook the dish as written and it is a balanced, nourishing meal. Read the keto note underneath and you know exactly which single ingredient to swap, cauliflower for potato, almond flour for breadcrumbs, cream for a flour roux, to bring the same plate under your carb target.

Art on the plate

Monika is also a working artist, and it shows in how the food is composed and photographed. Every dish in the cookbook was cooked, plated and shot in full colour, not styled with props you would never eat. What you see is what lands on your table.

What she is working on now

Her next title, The Spiced Plate: Global Cuisine Made Simple, brings the same balanced, keto-aware approach to global home cooking, bold spice, short ingredient lists, and nutrition facts you can actually use.