Nicola has taken an interest in healthy food since a child, originally wanting to study nutrition she pursued a degree in Food Technology studying at Massey University entering the workforce soon after with an Honours degree.

Her career has seen her work for a variety of large NZ and multi-national food manufacturers in product development, marketing and management. This was a far cry from her main passion of healthy eating and she chose to extend her studies into the areas of Natural Therapies where she completed a Dip Natural Therapies, Dip Remedial Massage, and has qualified as a Health Coach.

A blip in her health in 2011 took her understanding of healthy eating and living to a completely new level and she loves soaking up information on this subject.

In 2014 she discovered the amazingness of Thermomix and loved this multi-functional German kitchen appliance so much that she decided to join the Thermomix team and become an independent consultant.

She loves the change Thermomix makes to people’s lives by providing an enjoyable and easy way for people to cook from scratch. “It is wonderful to see people who have never cooked start to cook and really love it, people eating a healthier diet, saving money off their grocery bill, children cooking from a very young age, and busy families saving time in the kitchen every night.”

She shares her passion for cooking in her kitchen through her facebook page (The Happy Kitchen), so named through the happiness and joy Thermomix put into their family kitchen and her favourite cookbook right now: Everyday Cooking for Thermomix Families.

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Towards the end of the podcast, the book Nicola referred regarding whole food for athletes is:

• Feed Zone Portables by Biju Thomas and Allen Lim – A cookbook of on-the-go food for athletes

• Delicious grain-free biscuits (using mainly walnuts)
• Paleo cacao slice
• Grain-free hot cross buns (muffins actually)
• Plus.. loads of whole food recipes here by Quirky Cooking

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I met Adrian Scott around 10 years ago when he moved to Ho Chi Minh City from London for a brief adventure. I remember the first couple of times I saw him, perspiring profusely in the Vietnam heat as he navigated his way through the kitchen and local culture of our favourite cafe/restaurant in D2.

I wondered if he would last. It is not an easy journey for anyone in business to uproot to a new environment and take on the challenge of leading locals and making sure you empower them without overshadowing them. It is harder for a Chef where you are dealing with pride and secretly guarded family recipes – yet he is still in Saigon and loving it.

His belief in others, his desire to allow others to shine, his respect for difference is evident as I chat to him in this interview. For foodies, for travellers, for expats and those who lead or teach others – this chat is for you all.

And if you ever travel to Vietnam – then make sure you head into D2 and find a smoothie to soothe at Mekong Merchant and dine by the water at The Deck. These are two hidden gems you should not miss! (And you are SO lucky I’m prepared to share this info with you – as I would hate to find that The Deck suddenly couldn’t accommodate me when I next take a trip and am ready to be indulged and spoiled by their kitchen team).

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Wendy from Waiheke is a gorgeous lady who loves her life on Waiheke Island, just a short ferry trip from Auckland. Loving the local life and enjoying nurturing her herb garden, she decided to use the herbs she used to create a delicious and nutritious spread for her young children. With much experimenting and asking for feedback from Chefs and consumers, she hit upon what is now the famous and well known Waiheke Herb Spread as we know it.

With indigenous herbs mixed with traditional edibles, this is a unique and delicious spread that can be used in so many different ways. With the wild harvested style nature of the ingredients it has been tricky for her in navigating certification for pure Organic – but as we Kiwi’s know – the Waiheke folk take great care in not using chemicals and sprays and this spread is a product of this care.

Wendy joins me to share her story – from a child to an adult – from a Mum of young children to the creator and owner of a small business which hand churns out hundreds of bottles of Waiheke Herb Spread each week.

For more information about Waiheke Herbs visit their website or their Facebook page.

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Food waste is a major issue in New Zealand, although you may not realise it. Every time we throw out food – our bread crusts or last night’s leftovers – it adds up. Love Food Hate Waste wants to change this.

In fact, Kiwi households throw out about 79kgs of food each year which is the equivalent in weight to eight sacks of potatoes. How do we know this? They went through your rubbish.

They gathered bags that were left out on the street for rubbish collection, opened them and separated out the food. They then measured it to get a picture of what Kiwis throw out. It was a gross but important thing to do. Only by realising what a problem food waste is, can we begin to solve it.

Did you know…

Food is wasted at all stages of the supply chain, from what is produced on farms and in factories to the excess that supermarkets throw out. However, the largest proportion of food wasted in New Zealand comes from households. 

Today I am talking to Sarah who is driving the “Love Food, Hate Waste“ initiative in NZ – listen in to see how you too can be involved.

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Cast Iron Cookie is a dairy-free, delicious food blog based in Auckland, NZ. Alan and Vicky create easy to follow recipes that are packed with flavour.  Here they share the story of how Vicky, who after struggling with her weight, finally lost 35Kg.  She was determined to get fit and healthy and decided to try to also beat her hay fever and acne by forgoing dairy (her favourite food).

Having walked in your shoes they aware that having a dairy intolerance or allergy can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to mean you need to miss out on Custard Tarts. Or Tikka Masala. Or Eggs Benedict!

They are a tight team, where Vicky does the photography and Alan spends hours playing with food to create the recipes.

If you ever search for a recipe on the web and wonder how it got there and the behind the scenes requirements for actually getting your blog out to the world – then listen in here for some eye opening tips from these bloggers who are determined to one day be able to give up the 9-5!

Special thanks to Alan and Vicky Kernohan for being on the podcast.

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Eddie Paje started cooking in his family’s commercial kitchen at 14 years old and quickly realised he wanted to be a Chef.  His mother, a Chef for 27 years, imparted her wisdom on technique and traditional cooking – and his belief still lies in that all cooking stems from tradition.

Eddie loves natural flavours, combining of spices and playing with traditional food to bring it to the contemporary table.

Cooking for Eddie is so much more than just the food. It is about an expression of culture, a presentation of a story on a plate. He is passionate and creative  He loves his food and his family and his customers play a firm pivotal role in his life too.

Eddie is lively and engaging and travels to learn about new flavours and techniques whenever he can take a break from running his restaurant, Neptune, at the Viaduct in the heart of Auckland.

I loved chatting with Eddie – and we wholly agree on the essential element of teaching our kids to cook.

He says for him as a chef, food is life. ‘When you eat really good food it makes your soul happy and it brings everyone together……That’s why it’s important for children to learn how to cook when they’re young.’

Special thanks to Eddie for being on the podcast.

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How does one even begin to describe Ray? A self taught Chef, a passionate life-long learner, a food obsessed writer, a MasterChef Judge, a Senior Lecturer in Gastronomy, he cuts quite the figure. He is well known from his National TV appearances in NZ and can be thought to be quite scary. Funny, though, off screen he is a genuine guy, who takes the time for a chat – but will let you know exactly how things sit! And I love that!

Here, we laugh about bad cooking, about the fools (me) who go on MasterChef (LOL) and the flip side of being a judge.

We hear how food has changed through time, the joys of food and family, the blessing other cultures bring to our table and how Ray believes that a healthy obsession with eating delicious home cooked food is a brilliant way to live life.

Ray shares his favourite foodie spots in New Zealand, his favourite way to while away a Sunday with friends (around the table of course) and his views on fads and diets. I totally forgot to ask him the list of either/or questions at the end of the episode – I think I was still so overwhelmed at even being in his house!

This is a podcast episode I am still blown away to have had the pleasure to have created. I know it is one you listeners will adore too.

You can find Ray McVinnie on Twitter.

He is the consulting Food Editor at Bite Mag.

He is hosting a gastronomy tour to Europe next year – for details you can email him here: raymcvinnietour@orbit.co.nz

Special thanks to Ray for being on the podcast.

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Joe & Leoni

RebelFood started off as a small idea by Joe and his fiancée Leoni. Having always been determined to own his own restaurant by the age of 30 and upon discovering there was a chance to use a small, local kitchen as a base for production, Joe decided that the time to move away from an idea of a restaurant and take on a different challenge had arisen.

So they decided to create something that would give New Zealanders the nutrients they need, without adding anything to harm what’s natural and without taking anything away from it. They wanted to make it convenient, nostalgic and also help people understand what food really is. They want to empower each individual person to be able to say no to consuming over-priced disease in a can, and charge them as little as they can, allowing them enough money to form communities and help schools and youth, and put trust back into the food chain.

This is the premise that has formed RebelFood and their buzzing little kitchen in Queenstown.

Their ambitions are big…

• Provide NZ with great tasting, nutritious snacks, made with a purpose.
• Form a community.
• Empower a nation by providing education
• Help schools earn extra income whilst teaching kids about food health
• Give active people the key nutrients they need to perform
• Be amazing!

You can join their journey on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter.

Their blogs will tell you all you need to know about their snack boxes, and their NutriBombs.

Listen to our chat and then…. ‘Join The Uprising’ – An explosion of raw nutrition. Made by humans for humanity.

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Grant is leading the wave of change in how we think about our health, including how we exercise, how we sleep, how we (and our kids) play, and how we connect. The central place real food plays in our health and wellbeing, and a desire to help people “be the best they can be”, drives his research and practice.

Dubbed “The Fat Professor”, he is at the forefront of challenging the widespread fat phobia that has pushed us to eat a diet full of processed, carb-laden food. “It’s time to help the world change,” he says. Prof Grant is a respected PhD public health academic of 20 years with all the boxes ticked in a high-achieving career.

Caryn is a Registered Dietitian and sports nutritionist. Her master’s degree was in the area of sports nutrition and her

doctoral studies focused on how to achieve sustainable weight loss. Caryn currently combines academic work with her own clinical dietetic practice.

She believes this mix of academia and practice keeps her real and on the cutting edge of knowledge (and busy).

Special thanks to Grant and Caryn for being on the podcast.

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Jono Beattie is an example of a young man blessed with an innate natural skill in creating plates of delicious food which appear as works of art. His passion for flavour and his love of nature translate to meals which seem too pretty to touch.

Jono’s aspiration to be a top Chef has seen him seek inspiration and education from around the world, where he moved from place to place to gain a breadth of experience before setting out to create his own unique dining offering.

He is now the whisper around town as guests privileged to have had his bespoke, private dining experience are entranced by the degustation in-home restaurant he is able to create.

Jono is generous and giving. He cooks for charities and guides others in realising their own talents. His quiet humility is what is most endearing – along with his truly amazing ability with food.

This has led to others within the industry taking note also and since this podcast was recorded Jono has cooked along side Chef’s Blakeman, Southon and Bosley and will be a Celebrity Chef for an upcoming Ora King Slamon 2016 Collaboration dinner series alongside David Schofiled and Makoto Tokuyama.

I am privileged to have met Jono through our mutual association with Ronald McDonald House Charity, and am excited to watch his achievements and proud to call him a friend.

Jono’s Private Dining Experience is known as TEXTURE.

Find Jono on Facebook here and Instagram here.

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