Eat Local Cooking Workshop Series
Good Food Movement kicked off 2018 with an "Eat Local" workshop series, where local chefs offered classes on how to cook delicious, vegan food utilizing local ingredients. We co-hosted this series with Down to Earth over the course of three months, with four amazingly talented chefs.
Our very first cooking workshop was taught by Mama T on January 20, 2017. Mama T is a well known vegan chef and executive chef at Umeke Market in Downtown Honolulu. It is her passion to show how easy it is to create healing foods that taste delicious and improve health.
Mama T shared her wealth of raw knowledge with us as we learned how to make fresh juice, raw tahini burgers with cole slaw, sauerkraut, chocolate oat cookies, and medicinal herbal tea. Everything tasted so delicious and healthy!
The next cooking workshop was led by Nina Cucina on February 17, 2018. Nina is a brilliant plant-based chef and health coach who taught us how to make her most popular farmer's market menu items. Nina drew upon her experience as an art teacher in the kitchen, where she crafts edible masterpieces. This included her famous 'ulu chowder, fresh macadamia nut milk, naturally fermented chili paste, pineapple cilantro hot sauce, and raw chocolate walnut brownie energy truffles.
On February 28, Andrea Bertolli from Vibrant Wellness Journal led our third cooking workshop. Andrea is a vegan chef, educator, and cookbook author. She is very passionate about plant-based cooking and has been teaching people how to eat more veggies for almost 10 years across Oahu, Maui, and San Francisco.
During this workshop, we learned how to make Swiss chard rolls, kabocha tofu curry with coconut peanut sauce, and sweet potato salad with cashew miso mayo. Visit her blog or check out her Gettin’ Saucy cookbook for even more yummy ideas!
Our last workshop in the “Eat Local” cooking series was taught by Kelly Stern from Goldilocks Grinds on March 17th. Kelly is an incredible chef that specializes in raw desserts and vegan food— in addition to being a farmer, yoga teacher, and co-founder of Yogarden Hawaii. We were lucky to have had Kelly share her enthusiasm for farm to table food and community building with us.
Kelly’s menu was gluten free pesto pizza with Mac nut cheese, raw coconut cream pie, and cauliflower popcorn. There was a lot of hands on learning with volunteers coming up to decorate the pizzas. She emphasized the importance of supporting local farmers, by eating local and organic to honor our food, the planet, and our bodies.
We are so grateful for everyone that showed up to the workshops and all the wonderful lady chefs. Thanks to you, the movement is alive and growing. Let’s keep thriving by sharing the knowledge and the good food… one meal at a time.