‘My trick to get them to eat vegetables? Get it ready first

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“Food is very important to me. All day long I can look forward to what I will eat in the evening. I taught myself to cook. I used to be with my father every other weekend, and my brother and I alternated cooking on Sundays. Then we got a budget for which we could go shopping and we got to work. Before I knew it I was in the kitchen all Sunday.

“Before I knew it I was in the kitchen all Sunday”

From the age of sixteen I always had jobs in the hospitality industry. Later I worked in banking, but that made me very unhappy. Actually, I was looking forward to lunch most of all.

Turn things around

When I was in my early thirties, I changed course. I did an internship in a restaurant kitchen. I started at the very bottom, but that was fine with me. I was very eager to learn and quickly got better at the profession. After that I worked as a professional chef and started writing for culinary websites and magazines.

For a long time I wanted to do something with modern Indian cuisine. I had no family recipes – my Indian grandmother couldn’t cook at all – so I went to Indonesia to taste dishes that I gave my own twist. indo rock came out in 2019 and was named the Golden Cookbook of that year. At the beginning of this year came Insane out, a cookbook about healthy eating, because that’s what I’m always working on.

Also read – Want to save money while cooking? This way you use less energy >

Daily Therapy

Cooking helps me get out of my head. When my mind is confused, I go into the kitchen. By working with my hands, I get into a nice flow. Cooking is a kind of daily therapy. When Miro and Reva were very small, I wanted everything pure nature for them. Jars of baby food did not come in here at home. Later it was better to let go of that, in the end they still get chips and marshmallows at other children’s homes.

“If my mind is tangled up, I go into the kitchen”

My children have to eat what the pot is about and really don’t get a sandwich if they haven’t eaten well. Miro and Reva don’t eat everything, but a lot. They like sourdough bread and chocolate with cardamom. My trick to get them to eat enough vegetables? Make sure this is ready first and put it on the table if they are hungry. With a bit of luck, they will have finished the vegetables by the time the rest arrives on their plates.”

This article appears in Kek Mama 09-2022.

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