Just an hour from London on the sunny Brighton coast, natural nutritionists Kirsten Chick and Nicki Edgell are running inspirational cookery workshops - see interview below.

The next Good Food Cookery workshop is on Saturday 14th May 2011 at Hove Park School in their well equipped cookery lab, where you'll get to cook a selection of delicious dishes in the morning to then eat for lunch, and some mouthwatering snacks and treats in the afternoon that you'll get the chance to taste too. There will be short talks on seasonal and healthy eating, and all recipes are gluten-free and sugar-free, with vegetarian and vegan options. Ingredients are supplied - you just have to turn up and take part.

Here's some feedback from previous Good Food workshops:

"Really useful, fun and practical. Gave me the basics, plus some creative ideas and confidence to try more recipes"
"Wonderful, thank you so much - I now know what to do with all the ingredients in my cupboards!"
"Loved the fact that the recipes are so versatile and can be adapted in so many ways"
"Great cookery course - very inspiring, and quick, healthy, easy to make recipes"
"Thank you very much!! I'm now in the mood for a healthy dinner party! Feeling inspired! Great day!"
"I really enjoyed the workshops. They were well organised and full of useful info and great recipe suggestions.

So what's it all about? We asked some questions...

Q: Why did you decide to start running the Good Food Cookery Workshops?
Kirsten: Working with people on a nutritional level has really confirmed what we had noticed among our own peer group and families: that there is a whole generation of people who lack the skills and confidence to cook wholesome food.
Nicki: Yes, it was in the 1980s, wasn’t it, that convenience food and microwave meals really took hold, and by the 90s this had really hit the teenagers. Then many schools stopped teaching cookery until quite recently.
Kirsten: It really shows up in consultations when asking people about their diets. When we then go on to recommend new foods and different ways of approaching mealtimes, many people need support in learning how to do this.

Q: So do the recipes you teach cater for special diets?
Nicki: Yes, they do, but they’re not exclusive to people on special diets. They are all simple, delicious recipes that encourage people to experiment with a broader variety of seasonal ingredients.
Kirsten: So the recipes are all gluten-free and sugar-free, working with more gentle grains and sweeteners instead. In the workshops all the food is vegetarian, but we discuss how you can adapt recipes using meat and fish, or to be completely vegan. Most recipes are dairy-free – we sometimes explore using butter, ghee and fermented dairy (such as yoghurt), but there will also be dairy-free options. The focus is on enjoying the process and enjoying the food.
Nicki: We’re not the food police, we just want to show you how easy it is to bring more variety into your mealtimes, use wonderful ingredients, cater for or follow special diets, and generally lighten the load of what you’re putting into your bodies. It’s an opportunity to really get creative.

Q: What makes Good Food different to other workshops?
Kirsten: It’s not just cookery skills we’ve lost, many of us have also lost the knowledge of how to prepare and put food together in a way that will make the nutrients more absorbable. What foods go together, why and when to soak foods, what times of day or of the year are best for some kinds of foods, how to source good ingredients... these are the kinds of things that we teach on the workshops as well.
Nicki: Healthy eating is a major agenda at the moment, and there are some good initiatives out there. Many of these are chef driven, which is great; whereas we are bringing our love of cooking and eating together with our nutritional training. That training draws on the wisdom of many ancient cultures and traditions as well as more recent research. So it’s a very wholistic approach to preparing and eating our food, but at the same time a very simple and enjoyable one.

Q: How long have the Good Food workshops been running?
Nicki: We did our first summer workshop in July 2008, and then did our first autumn/winter workshop that October. They were really successful: well attended, with great feedback and they have been a joy to teach.
Kirsten: Then we moved venues for the last one in October 2009 to a school cookery lab, so that everyone can get hands on making their own food. Before we could only really do that with the raw aspects of the day. The new venue and format worked fantastically, so we are there again in May.

Q: So the big question: which is best, local or organic?
Kirsten: There’s no reason why we can’t do both. There are many excellent box schemes that sell local, organic produce. And it’s possible to grow at least some of your veg or herbs yourself, whether you have a garden, an allotment or a windowbox.
Nicki: It’s good to eat local and seasonal food, as we have evolved to function best on what’s available around us right now (or it has evolved to support us). It’s also more likely to be fresher, and fewer airmiles are involved.
Organic food puts fewer chemicals into the soil, and is now well documented to be nutritionally richer, especially if grown or fed with the right ingredients and conditions - for example, pasture fed cattle have a much better essential fatty acid profile than grain fed cattle, and even more so if they are traditional breeds fed on ancient pastures.
Biodynamic farming looks to go a step further and nurture the plants and animals in alignment with the natural rhythms of their surroundings. The more mindfully we farm, the more we get out of the food when we come to eat it.

Q: So can you get all your nutrients from well-grown or reared foods?
Kirsten: Ideally, but it depends on many factors, such as quality of soil, how something is grown, harvested and stored, how it is then prepared and cooked or served. Then it depends on how well that person is able to absorb those particular nutrients, then transport them in the body and then utilise them.
Nicki: So many people may well need to use good quality, well absorbed supplementsi, or perhaps some carefully produced and packaged oils.
Kirsten: As nutritional therapists we can offer support in terms of individually tailored advice around diet and supplements. With the Good Food Cookery Workshops we can reskill anyone who is interested in learning how to cook good food. And we can also offer advice about how to source good ingredients.

Nicki: Not necessarily. Growing your own can be very cheap, and many box schemes are competitively priced. It’s true that well-grown produce can’t compete economically with some of the really mass produced food out there, but there are different options available to save money. For example, by stocking up on pulses and other vegetable proteins and eating meat a little less often – but make sure that when you do it’s organically and traditionally reared and fed.

Q: So who would benefit from your workshops?
Kirsten: If you aren’t confident in your cooking skills,
or if you need some fresh inspiration in the kitchen,
or if you want to work with new ingredients,
or perhaps you think you don’t have time or energy to cook healthy meals
Nicki: or if you’re seeing a nutritional therapist and want help putting their advice into practice,
or if you or a family member or friend is on a specific diet and you’d like help,
or perhaps you’re a nutritional therapist yourself and would like some new ideas,
- then these workshops are for you.

Come and cook
GOOD FOOD
with natural nutritionists Nicki Edgell & Kirsten Chick at their
GOOD FOOD COOKERY WORKSHOPS
teaching you how to cook simple and utterly delicious healthy food

Next workshop:
Saturday 15th October 2011
at Hove Park School

£45 for morning or afternoon only,
or £80 for all day (includes tasters and lunch)
£40/£75 early bird discount

Morning Workshop (Part 1)
10am-1pm
SAVOURY
~ MEALTIMES ~
The morning will focus on tasty seasonal breakfasts, lunches and evening meals.
You will cook some simple, delicious dishes to eat for lunch, showing that healthy eating can be easy and enjoyable for all the family.

Afternoon Workshop (Part 2)
1.30pm-4.30pm
SWEET
~ SNACKS & TREATS ~
We’ll show you how you can still enjoy seasonal sweet foods whilst eating healthily.
You will be making and eating some yummy snacks and seasonal desserts and treats that you will find hard to believe are good for you.

All recipes are gluten free and sugar free, with vegetarian and vegan options.

Book now:
Kirsten: 07968 137246 or info@naturalrecipes.co.uk
Nicki: 07786 405366 or nicki@nutritionandhealing.co.uk