Teen Kitchen Takeover
Anchor Food Professionals’ chefs put on ‘teacher’ caps to coach children of non-governmental foundation, Yayasan Sunbeams
Over the last 4 months, chefs from Fonterra’s food service arm, Anchor Food Professionals, have been double hatting, alternating between their chef hats and teacher caps, for a great cause.
They’ve curated a bespoke 4-month culinary workshop for 20 children aged between 14 – 17 years old from Yayasan Sunbeams, a non-governmental, self-supporting foundation that cares for and nurtures marginalised, at-risk youth.
Over the last 4 months, chefs from Fonterra’s food service arm, Anchor Food Professionals, have been double hatting, alternating between their chef hats and teacher caps, for a great cause.
The program which commenced in January, is designed to be informative and educational to equip, encourage, and empower youth to learn culinary basics in a fun way.
“Finding your way around a kitchen and being able to fix yourself a meal are essential life skills and could make for a great future career pathway,“ said Peter Quah, Foodservice Director, AFP Malaysia. “It’s also about lifting our community with greater nutritional awareness for a healthier, better life.”
Here’s where, Quah said, starting young could make all the difference.
Culinary activities teach confidence and skills that can prepare youth for a lifetime of healthy, sustainable habits. There are also some great learning outcomes to be picked up in a kitchen - healthy eating habits, taking direction, creativity, working with others, safety and responsibility.
“And if we can inspire a next generation of inspired culinarians, we say why not?”
The workshop was designed to provide sustainable education through nutritional awareness and the group spent time thinking about how to incorporate this into their daily lives with good dairy like our Anchor products.
“Finding your way around a kitchen and being able to fix yourself a meal are essential life skills and could make for a great future career pathway"
For 16-year-old Jason who joined the cohort, this was his first foray in the kitchen and the experience has been rewarding.
“I never had the opportunity before and was happy to give it a go,” he said. I had fun using my hands.”
“It was also inspiring to watch the chefs in action, and with more practice, I can see myself doing this in the future.”
He joked that he was no young Masterchef yet, “but can now confidently say I can whip a few decent dishes.”
The workshop includes culinary learning modules such as cookie decoration, pastry making, and hot food-making with pasta and soup, to ensure the children learn and master different cooking techniques, all under the watchful eye of AFP’s trained professionals.
Through this collaboration, the team hopes to ignite a generation of food industry professionals who’ll be able to champion a healthier way of cooking with the right product choices.