A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Live at the Sydney Opera House. In my true cheapo fashion I was able to get a free ticket (Dave, the awesome husband of my friend, Mel was a production manager of the event) and was entertained by the live cooking demonstration and also the focus on getting kids back in the kitchen and cooking foods using fresh ingredients.
One of the things that I love about Jamie Oliver is his balanced approach to nutrition- no food is off limits, it’s about learning healthy behaviours and adopting healthy habits such as cooking good food from scratch. In recent times, we have come to see celebrity chefs spruiking restrictive diets and making healthy eating exclusive or unobtainable for the average person. Jamie on the other hand, has used his celebrity status to positively influence the accessibility of healthy eating and food education across the world.
Food Revolution Day, which will be on May 15th this year, is a global campaign to put compulsory practical food education back on the school curriculum. Without a doubt, we are seeing an obesity epidemic and as Jamie says, “today’s children will be the first generation ever to live shorter lives than their parents” due to poor nutrition from an abundance of processed and fast food.
“My wish is to create a strong sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”
Jamie Oliver
Jamie suggests that, “by educating children about food in a practical, fun and engaging way, we can provide them with the knowledge and skills they so urgently need to lead healthier, happier lives. We need to make practical food education a compulsory part of every school curriculum across the world, and that’s why I’ve launched a petition calling on all G20 countries to action this. With enough support from millions of people around the world, I truly believe that we can create a movement that’s powerful enough to make governments take action.”
The Food Revolution Live was a great way to launch the petition in Australia and was a fun event to inspire adults and kids alike- especially with a special visit from the Wiggles.
I was able to head backstage after the event to get a glimpse behind the scenes and also to forage through some of the leftover produce to create some delicious recipes. Fruit and vegetables are perishable items so avoiding food wastage and finding savvy was to salvage them is always a good skill to have.
Heading home with an abundance of cucumbers, tomatoes, chillies, dill, coriander, onions and zucchini, I was able to create delicious zucchini fritters and preserve some of the ripe vegetables by preparing dill pickles and tomato chilli relish.
You can find these recipes here:
I have been fortunate enough to have a mother with great food and nutrition know-how and to also have studied science and nutrition for many years. I agree that to protect the health of our future population that we need to make food and nutrition more accessible to people who aren’t as fortunate, and education in schools is a great place to start.
To find out more information about Food Revolution Day head to:
www.foodrevolutionday.com/, join me to sign the petition at: www.change.org/jamieoliver and continue to talk about a (food) revolution through #FoodRevolutionDay.
