Food and I have had a long, incredibly complicated love story.
For years, I chased the elusive “how to get skinny” dream, getting completely lost in punishing crash diets that left me exhausted and uninspired. I viewed the kitchen as a place of restriction rather than a place of joy.
Today, Cafe Delites represents my personal liberation from that mindset. Here, we celebrate the absolute joy of eating.
The Story Behind the Screen
Cafe Delites didn’t begin in a boardroom or with a polished plan. It started on my kitchen floor, in the middle of a kind of physical and emotional pain I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
For years, movement was my oxygen. I was a dance and Zumba instructor who loved what I did with everything in me, until life shifted in the hardest way. I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after two long years of searching for answers. Zumba became more than a career then. It was my lifeline, the thing that reminded me I was still here, still fighting. But just as I began finding my way back, endometriosis arrived and forced me to give up dancing completely. Losing that part of myself, especially alongside a history of trauma, felt like everything was slowly being stripped away.
I turned to cooking and food photography as a way to cope, something to hold onto when everything else felt quiet and heavy. As a mother, a wife, and someone trying to keep going, I built Cafe Delites from the ground up, working up to 22 hours a day, 7 days a week, for years. I was relentless. There were days I filmed recipes for millions, then collapsed on the floor in pain between takes. As the site grew, so did the disconnect. To the world, I was creating beautiful, full flavoured recipes. Behind the scenes, I was disappearing.
I was trying to be everything for everyone else, while quietly losing myself. My weight reached 125 kilograms, and I got to a point where I avoided mirrors because I didn’t recognise the person looking back. I had built something incredible, but I had lost who I was in the process.
Now, this journey is about more than recipes or milestones. It’s about finding my way back, piece by piece, and learning that I can’t keep feeding the world if I’m still starving myself.
Experience and Recognition
I am incredibly humbled to see my creations traveling so far. From being featured on platforms like Country Living, Delish, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Huffpost, BRIT + CO, Australia Best Recipes, Food Network and Epicurious to chatting about my passion for Zumba on Channel 7’s Today Tonight. It’s been such a whirlwind!
One of my absolute favorite moments was winning the Best Recipes Home Cook Hero Competition. My Lamington French Toast with Raspberry Jam Syrup holds such a special place in my heart.
Beyond the kitchen, I’ve had the joy of partnering with brands like Natvia and supporting causes like the Lymphoma Coalition.
The Comeback
Life is Too Short Not to Enjoy Good Food
Realizing I was fading away, I made the terrifying decision to step back from the cameras. Over a three year hiatus, I went to war for my own physical and mental health. I lost 55 kilograms, but more importantly, I found the woman I had abandoned. I learned to love myself again.
Surviving stage four cancer and overcoming immense trauma lit a permanent fire inside of me. It taught me one undeniable truth. Life is entirely too short not to enjoy good food.
I am so incredibly grateful you are here. Whether you are here for the famous Deviled Potatoes, the Tomato Soup Mac and Cheese, or just a safe space to connect over our shared journeys, you are welcome at my table.
I used to get your recipes all the time and then eventually they stopped coming. I have missed making a lot of of your recipes, welcome back!
Steak bites are absolutely amazing my kids tell me I have to have it on the menu every week thank you for another amazing recipe!!
Your recipes are just the best. I have tried so many different recipes from other chefs but yours always turn out great. To prove it – I will tell you, I’m not a great cook, but your recipes make me seem like one. I made the chicken cacciatore one holiday and brought it to my aunt’s for a shared meal w/family. Even my (picky re food) brother raved over it!
Hi Barbara! Thank you that is amazing news! So happy to hear that you enjoy my recipes that feedback is what keeps me going! Enjoy Xx
Looking forward to using some of these recipes .
Viewed several of your recipes so far! My favorite by far, is your fudgy brownie recipe! Which I amped up slightly, but oh so good! I removed 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder and added an equal amount of espresso powder. Rich and decadent let me tell you! I also make a gluten-free version of the same for some friends and they crave these things! Of course, I have to oblige them! I have the jambalaya on the stove at this very moment. Stay tuned!
Hey, Karina! I would love to learn more about the healthy types of food you enjoy making as well as other fun foods!! I’m a cancer survivor and I’m always looking for a combination of different things that are fun to make and that are healthy as well. If you happen to have a cookbook, or various recipes on here that you would like to share, I’m definitely interested! This is so fun because food is a journey! It’s an adventure that should be enjoyed because life is too short!
Hi Matt, Thank you for sharing your story. I am working on something special for you, if you haven’t already please join my weekly newsletter and you will be the first to know when my book comes out! Enjoy! Xx
My husband and I LOVED your chimichurri recipe! Thanks 😊
You are absolutely beautiful … and …
I am very assured that your recipes will be “unbelievable”, too.
Can’t wait to try some of your creations. Until then, Thank You for sharing
your knowledge.
JVS
Bravo Kariina on your
story xxx
I have made your Chimichurri three times it is a fantastic recipes loved by not just me but my husband. I am going to try some more or your recipes really glad l found this site one of the better one.