Dalia David

Dalia David is not your typical chef. Born on a pineapple plantation in southern India, where every meal came from the soil beneath her feet, she learned early that food is sustenance before indulgence, and that ancestral plant knowledge is a form of personal wealth.. When she immigrated to the United States, she grew quiet, afraid her broken English wouldn’t land right. That silence became her greatest teacher, training her to sense nuance, rhythm, and emotion long before words were spoken.

Once a first generation Indian American child too shy to speak above a whisper, she now commands rooms as a global speaker and former Dale Carnegie trainer, guiding communities, Fortune 500 leaders, cultural institutions and scientists to see how nourishment, heritage, and food based emotional intelligence shape the systems that sustain us. She channels that early sensitivity on stage, teaching audiences how to listen to what the world is saying through food.

Today, David uses the language of food to build clarity and connection, translating science complexity into something people can understand. Her signature blend of culinary insight, emotional intelligence, and cultural strategy has resonated everywhere from NASA and the International Astronautical Congress to a Women’s Health Expo in Uvalde, Texas - connecting the worlds of science, culture, and everyday wellbeing. Audiences leave with a clear understanding of how food can reveal the intelligence of both people and systems.

Before leading Heritage Space Food, an ecosystem of chefs, scientists, and storytellers exploring how cultural intelligence can guide innovation in extreme environments and support Earth resilience - David was a force behind the earliest corporate wellness food kitchens at LinkedIn Headquarters, serving 400 employees a day from one of NYC’s first ghost kitchens. Her plant-based food systems for brain clarity and stamina became models for workplace vitality. She has trained in the kitchens of Jean-Georges’ Spice Market, Pure Food & Wine, The James Beard House, and studied Plant Nutrition at Cornell.

David partners with organizations at the nexus of mission and meaning; nonprofits, innovation networks, equity coalitions, and space agencies, to help them build strategies, narratives, and experiences rooted in cultural care, interdependence, and long term relevance. Her work sits where culture meets systems, preservation meets future, and identity meets societal impact.