The Executive Chef at Cooke’s Restaurant & Bar, Jinu Abraham, has put his support behind a classroom nutrition initiative aimed at teaching primary school students and their parents about the benefits of healthy eating.
The initiative is the brainchild of Dr Sharad Paul, author of The Genetics of Health – Understanding Your Genes for Better Health. During research for the book, Dr Paul uncovered links between the influences of different cultures, eating habits and physical activities on human genes. From this, the aim was to help people, especially school children, make healthy choices.
Chef Abraham, with his own passion for produce-driven, whole foods and organic options was fully supportive of the initiative.
“This is such a great initiative teaching kids to make good food choices. I believe that the right food choices and healthy preparation help towards good nutrition, especially for the little ones. It is such a good thing to support wellness at a grassroots level.”
With support from the NZMA Hospitality and Culinary School, Chef Abraham will lead and prepare meals for 130 invited guests at the opening of New Zealand’s first nutrition classroom at Glen Taylor Primary in Glenn Innes on the 24th May.
Chef Abraham’s menu for the opening will bring together recognised cultural foods befitting the Maori and Pacific roll of the school, while subtly demonstrating that good nutrition can be achieved even on a tight budget.
Chef Abraham strongly believes in the importance of good nutrition and by starting the education process early there is potential to make a difference to whole communities.
It’s a great initiative and one that will surely lead to positive outcomes for the communities involved.
