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Healing from cancer never tasted so good.

Recipes to nourish the body and soul, from the kitchen of The Healing Oasis. Written by Chef Shane LaRoche for people knowing that good food can restore health.

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Paperback, two hundred and twenty pages. Foreword by Dr. Sean Ceaser.

Healing From Cancer Never Tasted So Good, a cookbook by Chef Shane LaRoche

A word from Dave and Jenn Vass

Why we made this book.

Dave and Jenn Vass introducing the cookbook Watch: the cookbook is now on Amazon · 1 min 48

Real food. Real flavour. Made for healing.

Knowing what you should eat and actually wanting to eat it are two very different things.

When you are healing from cancer, eating well matters more than ever. But treatment can steal your appetite, dull your taste buds and leave you far too tired to cook.

That is where Chef Shane LaRoche comes in.

At The Healing Oasis in Lumby, British Columbia, where people come from all over the world to heal, Shane cooks every day for guests who are actively in treatment. He works alongside a medical team to make meals that support the body and bring back the joy of eating.

Every recipe in this book has been cooked, tested and refined for real people on their hardest days, when nausea, fatigue and loss of appetite turn every meal into a challenge.

Chef Shane LaRoche cooking in the kitchen at The Healing Oasis

What is inside

Recipes to nourish the body and soul.

Organised the way you actually eat, from the gentlest morning to a dinner worth sitting down for.

01

Smoothies and breakfasts

Gentle places to start on a morning when nothing appeals. Nourishing, quick, and easy to get down.

02

Soups, bowls and entrees

The comfort food of the book. Shane's soups are the thing guests ask for the recipe to before they leave.

03

Sides, snacks and desserts

Because a treat should still feel like a treat. Nothing here tastes like a compromise.

04

Gluten free sourdough

Plus the sauces, spice blends and marinades that make everything else work.

05

Chef's Tips

Drawn from years in professional kitchens. Small things that make a large difference at home.

From the kitchen

This is the food, photographed as it is served.

Not styled for a magazine. Plated at The Healing Oasis, for guests, on an ordinary week.

A lunch spread laid out on the long table at The Healing Oasis
Heirloom tomato and avocado salad from the cookbook
Rosemary fennel roasted chicken plated for dinner service
A sliced loaf of gluten free sourdough from the special feature chapter

Look inside

Every recipe laid out so you can follow it on a bad day.

Ingredients on the left, instructions on the right, a chef's tip at the bottom. No hunting through paragraphs to find the oven temperature.

The contents page of the cookbook listing every chapter
The heirloom tomato and avocado salad recipe page
The rosemary fennel roasted chicken recipe page

Two hundred and twenty pages, from smoothies and breakfasts through to desserts, with a foreword by Dr. Sean Ceaser and blank pages at the back for your own recipes.

“I can tell a patient which foods will support their healing. Shane is the one who makes sure they will actually want to eat them.”

Dr. Sean Ceaser · from the Foreword

There are a lot of cancer cookbooks. There is nobody like Shane.

Guests who come to The Healing Oasis say, consistently and unprompted, that the meals are some of the best food they have ever eaten. Not the best food they have eaten while unwell. The best food, full stop.

Healing from cancer does not have to mean your meals are boring. These are not borrowed recipes reprinted with a new cover. They are hand crafted, from years of cooking for people in active treatment, by a chef who had to rebuild his own relationship with food after a personal health crisis.

What if you could eat the best meals of your life, and know every one of them was built to nourish you?

A gift that is actually useful

If someone you love is in treatment, you have probably run out of things to do that help. Flowers wilt. Nobody needs another blanket. This is the rare gift that gets used on a Tuesday night when nobody can face cooking, and it carries the message that you want them to eat well and enjoy it.

It suits caregivers too. Often they are the ones standing in the kitchen at seven in the evening with no idea what to make.

Out now

Healing From Cancer Never Tasted So Good

Recipes to Nourish the Body and Soul, by Shane LaRoche, Award Winning Executive Chef at The Healing Oasis.

Buy the cookbook on Amazon

This book is not intended to replace medical advice. Please consult your healthcare team about your nutritional needs.

Or come and let us cook

Would you rather someone else made it?

Need to get away and have these same meals cooked for you, while receiving world class natural therapies on sixty private acres? Tell us a little and we will be in touch.

  • Three week stays, all inclusive
  • Every meal cooked by Shane and his kitchen
  • Forty minutes from Vernon Hospital, BC

No obligation. We reply personally, usually within a business day.

Before you buy

Questions about the cookbook.

Who is this cookbook for?

Anyone eating their way through cancer treatment, anyone cooking for someone who is, and anyone who simply wants to eat in a way that nourishes. You do not need to be a confident cook. The recipes assume tired hands and a short attention span.

Is it suitable during chemotherapy?

The recipes were written for exactly those weeks. Nausea, metallic taste, no appetite, too tired to stand at a stove. That is the problem Shane was solving. Check anything specific with your own healthcare team, since dietary needs during treatment vary enormously.

Are the recipes gluten free?

Many are, and there is a gluten free sourdough chapter. The book is not exclusively gluten free, but substitutions are noted throughout.

Do I need special ingredients?

No. Shane cooks with whole food you can buy in an ordinary supermarket. There is nothing in here that requires a specialist supplier.

Who is Shane LaRoche?

Executive Chef at The Healing Oasis, an award winning restaurateur and co owner of The Rock Eatery. He rebuilt his own relationship with food after a personal health crisis, and he has cooked daily for guests in active cancer treatment since The Healing Oasis opened.

Is this a substitute for medical or dietary advice?

No. It is a cookbook. Please consult your healthcare team about your nutritional needs.

No cost, no obligation

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