FOUNDER

Marijke loves cooking veg-forward, flavourful meals with lots of colours and textures. Some of her favourite ingredients are freshly ground spices, lemon, and all the herbs. She founded Maeven Chef in 2021 after working for a decade in restaurants and as a private chef. Marijke feels so much joy and inspiration from bringing her vision to life with the amazing team of Maeven Chef.

Director of Culinary Nutrition

Steph is graduated with Honours from Georgian College’s Food and Nutrition Management Program in 2022 and has helped us launch the Maeven Method to assist clients with unique nutrition needs that need specialized suppor. Steph is always thinking about how they can help people (and pups!) which really shows through their incredible cooking and background teaching culinary classes, creating delicious healthy meals for the community, and creating an online bakery called Mama Lo's Bakery & Kitchen. They grew up in a restaurant family in Scarborough and love to make friends with all their clients’ pets.

Administrative Assistant

Kara’s sense of creative and compassion bring so much to Maeven Chef. She spends her time connecting with our new and existing clients, liasing with the chefs, managing schedules and feeding Marijke Reese’s peanut butter cups. An integral part of our team! When she’s not working, she works on her visual art projects and spends time with her family near High Park.

Personal Chef

Born in Istanbul, Jasmin Von Horsten is the daughter of a Turkish/American mother and a German father who worked as a chef across Europe. Growing up in Switzerland, she was immersed in a rich culinary culture from an early age where she found herself always in the kitchen. She was surrounded by the tradition of sharing freshly cooked meals that filled the dining table. She began her journey by collecting recipes from every restaurant she visited, gradually evolving her repertoire into a unique style that caters to her family’s tastes and dietary needs. Whether creating private dining experiences or catering to events, she discovered that her greatest joy lies not only in cooking for herself but in delighting others with her food.

Personal Chef

At the start of her culinary journey, Christine attended Cordon Bleu culinary school in Florence, Italy. She will always love cooking Italian food; luckily everyone loves to eat it as well. She’s travelled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and North & South America trying many different foods and adding to her culinary repertoire. Christine’s previous role was working as a Culinary Skills Instructor for the YMCA, training people how to be chefs and navigate the culinary industry as well as preparing donated meals for Meals on Wheels and Second Harvest. She lives in Mississauga with her very well-fed family and dog.

Lisa loves connecting with her clients by sharing her favourite dishes. She comes from a long line of cooks starting with her great-grandfather. Her cooking style is a combination of French techniques from her culinary school training and Asian flavours from her own background.

Madelaine is an Ecuadorian-Canadian chef with a deep love of all cuisines, especially Latin flavours. She worked in Toronto restaurants with North-American and European cuisines before joining our team. She believes that you can taste the love and care she brings into her food, and loves sharing her passion with the people she cooks for.

David is a Chinese-Canadian chef, graduated from the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America in New York. He worked in restaurants, bakeries and hotels in New York, Florida and Toronto, focusing on seasonality and global flavors before joining the Maeven Team. He believes that food brings all kinds of people together and he loves sharing his passion for food with those around him. He loves connecting with his clients to share and explore new things and flavors. When he is not working, he often likes to do some side projects such as making beer at home and producing his own maple syrup at his family's property in Richmond Hill.

Maureen Diana has been working as a chef for 15 years. She specializes in Italian, French, African, Mediterranean, Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines. She is passionate about fitness and healthy eating, when she’s not cooking she’s likely to be working out at the gym. She shares her love of cooking in the kitchen, where she turns ordinary ingredients into extraordinary flavours.

Chef Pillar Walsh brings a bold, flavour-first perspective to the kitchen, shaped by years of experience across Toronto’s diverse culinary spaces. From curated wedding menus to fast-paced community kitchens, her cooking is driven by instinct, technique, and a deep understanding of what makes food truly satisfying. When she’s not cooking for Maeven Chef, Pillar works on her small-batch BBQ sauce and spice-blend company BBQ Bodega.

Built on flavour. Driven by instinct. Finished with intention.

Marina Babaian is a chef with over 15 years of culinary experience, known for bringing comfort to life through cuisine. Her meals do more than nourish the body—they speak to the soul. For her, food is never just sustenance; it is memory, togetherness, and the joy of shared flavors. Every dish she creates is an invitation to feel at home, no matter where you are.

Cooking, for Marina, is more than technique—it is storytelling through flavor. Each plate carries a narrative: memories rekindled, time shared, and comfort expressed in every bite. She has a gift for transforming simple ingredients into something magical, weaving aromatic spices, fresh herbs, and the rhythm of the kitchen together like music.

Step into her kitchen and you’ll find a place where mood, melody, and flavor converge. A good song, a joyful spirit, and a swirl of spices are all it takes for Marina to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. That is the magic of her food: it connects, comforts, and reminds us that we belong.

Paul Rousom is a seasoned chef with over 30 years in the industry. Paul covers the North GTA areas and specializes in elevated comfort food. His clients love his sense of humour, professionalism and attention to detail. When he’s not cooking for clients, he cooks for his toughest critics-his children.

Chef Gec was raised in a family where cooking was not just a daily ritual, but a way of life. Rooted in a rich Filipino-Chinese heritage, her culinary style is shaped by generations of tradition, memory, and shared family tables. She draws inspiration from heirloom recipes passed down through her family, preserving their authenticity while presenting them with a refined, modern sensibility.

Her work spans intimate private dining experiences to full-scale corporate catering, with a consistent focus on detail, balance, and hospitality. Whether crafting an elegant dinner for a small gathering or coordinating service for larger events, Gec brings a calm, thoughtful approach to every plate she serves, creating food experiences that feel both personal and memorable.