About Chef Educator Rachel Finn

Clinical Chef Educator

Rachel Finn, Clinical Chef Educator for the Children’s Mercy Ketogenic Diet Program, is one of the only culinary professionals in the nation dedicated to working with children who have been prescribed a ketogenic diet as a treatment for epilepsy or other seizure disorders.

Prior to joining Children’s Mercy in 2013, Rachel owned a catering business and bakery called Chacko’s in Mission, Kan., for 17 years.

She also worked in hotel management after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.

“When I came to Children’s Mercy, I had years of culinary experience, but tackling the ketogenic diet was a new challenge for me,” she said. And tackle it she has.

Chef Educator Rachel works in tandem with clinical providers to convert the science of nutrition into the art of cooking with patients at the hospital’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.

She has created original recipes for the ketogenic diet, and the hospital’s patients who must follow the diet’s strict guidelines.

To help patients and families turn recipes into more than words on paper, she’s developed the “Cooking with Keto Kids” classes. She’s also a popular speaker on the topic at conferences, and she’s conducted research into the impact of the cooking class/support group on ketogenic diet families; and she performed a ketogenic diet cost analysis for patients with GLUT1 deficiency.

Her most recent project is this ketogenic diet cookbook, a one-of-a-kind resource full of kid-tested and approved recipes, plus tips to help families successfully follow the diet.

“I am all about the real world and what works best for our kids and their families,” Rachel said. “If the kids didn’t like a recipe, it didn’t make the cookbook. They’re the ones who have to eat it.”