Who is Valerie Segrest? Meet the judge of Hulu’s Chefs vs. Wild Season 1

Season 1 of Chefs vs. Wild is set to premiere on September 26, 2022. Throughout the entire journey, contestants will be hosted by wild food expert Valerie Segrest, who also stresses the need to follow nutritional diets.

Chefs vs. Wild will feature world-renowned chefs in every episode who will search the wild to gather the essential ingredients for preparing delicious dishes. During their search in the wild, the contestant chefs will have to face several adventurous tasks to complete their culinary challenges.

The official synopsis of the show reads:

Chefs and survivalists will go head-to-head to impress renowned chef and adventurer Kiran Jethwa and wild foods expert Valerie Segrest who will judge participants on their ability to turn foraged ingredients from British Columbia’s coast into the best five-star meal.

It further continues:

Reaching the peak of the culinary world has never been this demanding. In each episode of “Chefs vs. Wild,” two different world class chefs will be dropped into the wilderness where they’ll embark on an unprecedented mission – survive and forage enough wild ingredients to create a restaurant-worthy, five-star meal.

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Valerie Segrest from Chefs vs. Wild is a member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe

Valerie Segrest is a nutrition educator who specializes in local and traditional foods. She is part of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, a community that supports environmental protection and enhancements, educational opportunities, and social services.

She serves her community as the Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project coordinator. Segrest also works for the Northwest Indian College's Traditional Plants Program as a nutrition educator. By utilizing a community-based participatory research approach, she organizes tribal community members in grassroots efforts toward strengthening sustainable food systems that are culturally relevant and nutritionally appropriate.

Mentioning her educational background, the Chefs vs. Wild host completed her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University. She then completed her Master's Degree in Environment and Community from Antioch University. Segrest has also been a Food and Community Fellow for the Institute of Agriculture and Food Trade Policy.

For more than a decade, she has dedicated her work in the field of Nutrition and Human Health Science towards the efforts of the food sovereignty movement and catalyzing food security strategies. Her approach and social contributions are rooted in education, awareness, and overcoming barriers to accessing traditional foods for Tribal communities throughout North America.

Over the years, she has earned several certifications in advanced herbal studies. Additionally, Segrest has extensively researched the subject of historical and traditional food and medicine systems of the Coast Salish tribes of Western Washington.

Within ten years, the nutrition educator managed to co-author several publications, including Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit: Revitalizing Northwest Coastal Indian Food Culture, and Feeding Seven Generations: A Salish Cookbook.

The Chefs vs. Wild host was a Kellogg Food and Community Fellow at the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, which allowed her to share the efforts of the food sovereignty movement with audiences locally, nationally, and globally. In 2019, she was also featured in the Women’s Day Magazine, Food Network Magazine, and J.Jill's Inspired Women Campaign.

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Viewers can watch the premiere of Chefs vs. Wild on September 26 on Hulu.