Chef's Blog

Fern has been busy adding to her culinary skills by taking Auckland University of Technology's Level 4 Pacific Nutrition course.As a Cordon Bleu Chef, Fern creates all the recipes for the KidsHQ SuperMeals range which have become favourites for many more young children, including those at other childcare centres that get KidsHQ's commercial catering packs. Fern is also responsible for planning and overseeing the preparation of nutritious meals and snacks for more than 100 children at Parnell Trust's three early childhood centres - Gladstone Park, Parnell and St Johns Early Childhood Centres.Fern was interviewed by the East & Bays Courier after...

Children’s party food can get pretty predictable sometimes. Frozen sausage rolls, cheerios, potato crisps and tonnes of tomato sauce are some of the common items we may see on kids’ birthday menus. Although we know these foods are high in salt and sugar, and unhealthy saturated fats, we might opt for these choices because they’re convenient and we know kids will eat them. In my experience with a little imagination and lots of colourful fruits and vegetables, it's super easy to create a feast that won’t cost the Earth and the kids will devour! For children, the presentation of the...

  With spring well under way now we have lots of yummy and fresh, locally grown produce come into season. This week we are sharing a feature from the 5+ a Day website where you can find out what New Zealand grown produce is in season at any time. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables are available year round as they can be grown inside or imported, but this information is specifically about New Zealand grown produce. In season at the moment are: Artichokes (globe) Asparagus Avocado Brussel Sprouts Courgette Grapefruit Kiwifruit (gold and green) Leeks Navel oranges Parsnip Rhubarb...

    Hello readers! A month ago on this blog we recommended a free Stanford University course called Child Nutrition and Cooking – Click here to read that blog post. I’m currently two weeks through the course and am really enjoying it! Dr. Maya Adams has a very pleasant voice that makes for easy listening and the way she breaks down information and pairs it with clever visual aids makes the technical aspects of nutrition really easy to understand.  While giving plenty of great info on the importance of nutrition, Maya also highlights the importance of food and mealtimes as...

Recently, I attended the Creating HealthyLunchboxes workshop by Wick Nixon, from Wicked Wellbeing. This workshop was one of six free Sustainable Urban Living Workshops provided by Parnell Trust, thanks to a generous grant from the Waitemata Local Board. Wick taught us a few easy and healthy recipes from her gorgeous book ‘21 Day Marvellous Lunchbox Makeover’, which is packed with healthy ideas to spice up your lunchbox. Earlier this week, I made one of Wick’s recipes, Pizza Pinwheels, for the kids at Parnell Early Childhood Centre. I was really lucky to have two amazing chef assistants, and together we prepared and baked...