ACP (Association of Culinary Professional) Indonesia collaborated with Nestle Indonesia in celebrating International Chefs Day through “Nestle Healthy Kids” program. Took place at Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Trisakti (20/11), 70 students from SDN Pondok Labu 16 Pagi, SDN Pondok Labu 03 Pagi, and SDN Pasar Minggu 06 Petang DKI Jakarta are trained to be a chef for one day in this event.
With “Healthy Kids, Healthy Future” theme, ACP Indonesia and Nestle Indonesia educated the students about nutrition as well. They expected the student to bring their knowledge to their family in order to live a healthier life.
“Today, we teach them to cook the healthier version of their comfort food so that they can enjoy their favourite food without sacrificing the nutrition they need,” said Sabir Mapakkaya of ACP Indonesia.
Divided into teams of five, students are mentored by ACP Indonesia and YCCI (Young Chef Club Indonesia) members to cook two dishes which are Bakmi Daging Jamur (Meat and Mushroom Noodle) and Pai Ubi (Sweet Potato Pie). The first dish they cooked is Bakmi Daging Jamur inspired from street bakmi noodle.
“This dish is a complete meal. There are carbohydrates from noodle, vitamins from vegetables, and protein from the meat. Instead of using chicken, we use beef because it has higher protein content,” said Sabir.
After that, students baked Pai Ubi made from scratch. Not only healthy, it also uses sweet potato aims to promote local ingredients. The result is scrumptious pie with crunchy shell and creamy filling.
“We want to give them insight that healthy food is not always difficult to make, not delicious, or using expensive ingredients. Sweet potato is very affordable and baking this pie is very easy as well. The key of incorporating healthy and delicious food in everyday diet is maximizing local ingredients and elevating it with different techniques and recipes,” said Nur Shilla Christianto, Head of Corporate Communication Nestle Indonesia.
Introducing kids into healthy eating is oftentimes a hard task to do. Sabir realizes this and said that mothers can introduce healthy food to their kids bit by bit. If the change is too obvious, kids may refuse to eat.
“Cooking with your children can be a good solution. Don’t be scared to introduce kids to kitchen tasks as long as they are supervised. Introducing kids to kitchen leads them into the better appreciation of food and cooking,” said Sabir.
“Sometimes, the more you forbid them, the more curious they will be. Quenching their thirst of knowledge with engaging them into your everyday task actually makes a good experience for them,” said Shilla.
Besides cooking class, ACP and Nestle Indonesia also invited nutritionist Sari Sunda Bulan to teach kids about nutrition. This class aims to educate kids about nutrition contents in food, food portioning, and food substitution. To make it more interesting, Sari incorporating various games and interactive tools in this class.
“Teacher and parents can use interactive and interesting approaches to teach kids about nutrition in order to get them to understand the importance of healthy eating,” said Sari.
Nestle Healthy Kids was launched in 2010 involving 1500 students in 7 pioneer school. Through this program, Nestle introduce kids into a better understanding about the importance of healthy diet, physical activities, and maintaining hygiene. In late 2014, this program involves 40.000 students and 2.000 teachers from 106 primary schools of Indonesia.
Tags: acp, nestle indonesia, nestle healthy kids, international chefs day