Meet Priya.
Priya Hutner is an author, journalist, and storyteller whose work spans memoir, food writing, environmental journalism, and spiritual exploration. Her writing has been featured in Moonshine Ink, Nevada County Arts' Muse Magazine, The Tahoe Guide, and numerous other publications. She is known for her evocative storytelling and in-depth features on food culture, environmental issues, wildfire and arts and culture in Northern California.
A passionate advocate for the arts, Priya is the co-founder and program director of the Tahoe Literary Festival, and the Truckee Literary Crawl.
Good storytelling comes from depth of experience.
Beyond her literary work, she is the owner of The Seasoned Sage, catering company specializing in nourishing, soulful, delicious cuisine.
Her upcoming memoir, Chasing Nirvana: A Seeker’s Story of Love, Loss and Liberation is a deeply personal narrative of resilience, spiritual entrapment, and self-discovery, chronicling her journey growing up in a cult-like spiritual community and her ultimate path to freedom.
Priya’s latest projects include a culinary memoir about her life as a private chef, and two cookbooks, The Tarot of Cooking and The Epicurean Alchemist both include nourishment and wisdom for the body, mind and spirit, blending culinary wisdom with mystical insight, and integrating food, spirit, and elemental archetypes into a transformative cooking experience.
The Early Years
Who Am I?
The Indian saint Ramana Maharshi encouraged his students to meditate on this question, not to find an answer, but to strip away illusion and rest in the quiet presence of true self-awareness.
From a young child in the suburbs of Philadelphia to the streets of New York to an ashram in Florida- this life has been a wild journey. When my parents said we were moving to New York City to live in a communal house with their spiritual teacher, I packed my bags.
I wasn’t chasing enlightenment. I was chasing the pulse of the city. I moved into a house in Forest Hills, NY with my family and 15 other spiritual seekers. The hum of the city, the rumble of subway, and the scent of spices from every continent drifted through the air, both on the streets and in my communal home. I lived with my feet in two worlds straddling life as a somewhat normal teenager and living under the guidance of a spiritual teacher. It was this spiritual life that shaped me.
• • • • •
My teenage years were scored by the sounds of CBGB’s, Max’s Kansas City, The Bitter End, and late-night jazz halls. Central Park concerts, comedy clubs, dive bars, and underground music scenes shaped my cultural world. New York also gave me my love of global cuisine.
Life wasn’t linear. It was loud, raw, and real. I moved between New York and Florida more than once. I became a single mom and raised two sons in Queens. I bartended at an Irish pub with the line at the door 8 a.m. on Saturdays. I worked in nightclubs until sunrise. I sold weed to pay the bills.
• • • • •
When my life in New Work unraveled, I moved back to the ashram in Florida.
I was a reluctant yogi—until I wasn’t. Somewhere along the way, I wanted something deeper, a more meaningful life with purpose. I longed for a connection to the divine, to truth, to source. I meditated over 10,000 hours, chanted into the wee hours of the night, practiced yoga and was devoted to my guru. I learned to be with the dying, sitting in the sacred silence of presence. I became a swami.
• • • • •
Eventually, I walked away from it all, the guru, my family, my spiritual tribe and the teaching that had shaped my life. I left the robes behind and headed west. I took ayahuasca to heal my heart. I made friends with the wildest edges of myself. I experimented with psychedelics. I went to Burning Man and danced in the desert. I was on a mission to find myself again.
I’ve traveled the globe from South Africa, Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Mexico, and Japan. I biked my way through Eastern Europe— from Prague to Vienna to Bratislava and Budapest. When I need to recharge my soul, Hawaii calls me to her and I swim in her healing, rejuvenating waters with dolphins, mantas, sea turtles, and sharks. The vastness of ocean reminds just how small I am in this universe.
• • • • •
I love humanity. I love my friends. I love deep existential conversions and reading a good book-whether fiction, non-fiction, memoir, or well written juicy romance.
I’ve been a swami and a bartender. A single mother and a mystic. A rebel, and a writer.
• • • • •
My heart resides in Truckee these days, Donner Lake and surrounding mountains- my refuge.
I write. I cook. I teach.
I gather friends around the table and feed them.
I try to listen deeply and live fully.
• • • • •
I still contemplate on who I am- I realize I am just me a speck in the universe.
– Priya
“Laugh as much as you breathe.
Love as long as you live.”
– RUMI