Hui Xin Campus Staff Teambuilding on October 15th, 2016
Food is fuel, taste and emotion!
Meal time is a social event. It should be an event where we give thanks and appreciation to the food we are eating, the farmer who grew it or raised it, the people who cooked it for us, the ones we share it with and what that meal is giving us in terms of strength, energy and nutrients. From newly born, your survival depends on being fed, a baby's first instinct is to cry when hungry and show happiness when full. Our first ability to communicate and show emotion all originates from this basic need and continues to grow from there.
In the grand scheme of human evolution, what sets us apart from any other species is our ability to cultivate, farm and grow. Human civilization went from hunters and gatherers, who solely devoted daylight hours to acquiring food from the lands to farmers who began developing the land to produce food. We created the first tools to make farming easier and began diverting rivers to hydrate fields. As food production became efficient it branched out into raising livestock, growing vegetables and wheat. The first cooks who served whole communities were bakers, everyone at the time could make a fire and cook a stew or porridge, but bakers built ovens and stone-mills, and charged "currency" (or were paid in grain) to grind farmers grain or bake bread on behalf of them.
As early humans began spending less of their daylight hours devoted to hunting and satisfying this basic need to survive, knowledge and ideas started to grow since we had more time to contemplate about the world and its mechanics than spent on acquiring food. Suddenly humans had the time and basic skill to follow an idea through and the great age of understanding nature, animal species, plants and fauna, mechanical engineering, astronomy and science began, which is all thanks to farming, which made our food needs easily available and more dependable.
Skip forward to the 21st century we find ourselves living in cities. Fields and farms far away from view, cows and pigs raised in farms by the million and multi-billion dollar food industries and outlets like McDonalds, KFC surrounds us everywhere. Food and its sources have been branded and subjectified, the packaging shows vast farmlands, happy cows or smiling sheep, but how many have ever seen those places? It is easy to buy processed food, take-away or go out to eat at restaurants and many times it is even cheaper than cooking by yourself, but it distances us from the process of bringing food to the table and present a disconnection between the hard work of farming and us who consumes it.
I believe that one of the best things you can do as a family, is to cook together. Share tasks, explore the ingredients, taste the flavors of the natural produce both before and after cooking it.
I remember the first time I tried fresh pepper fruits and how amazing it tastes just as it is, add it on top of a piece of bread with cheese and it enhances the sweetness even more. Do not just look at food as a fuel, but look at it as a discovery, clean it, cut it, taste it, transform it.
Where I am from, restaurants are not cheap and we did not use to have fast food restaurants when I was little, so everyone had to cook, every day. We ate out or ordered take-away a maximum 5 times per year. The average now is more like 5 times per month I guess, even more so in China because it is affordable and there are unlimited choices of restaurants, nearby and convenient. A study shows that just 20 years ago an average family spent 60 minutes on preparing cooked meals per day, that time is now only 30 minutes. It shows that we do not prioritize the time needed to do home-cooking and if we do, we use canned produce or semi-cooked foods from factories.
Personally, I grew up admiring my mother's ability to cook, she let me be part of the process from as early as I can remember, to cut vegetables, stir the pot and measure ingredients. She had one rule, you cook it, you eat it! Even if it was a nutella/tomato sandwich I had made, which seemed like a great idea, because I like both nutella and tomato, but it didn't really add up! It was definitely one of those "the sum of, is less than its parts". Regardless, I had to eat it, because no food waste was allowed in our house. That's kind of a good principle I think, as it allows you to experiment but also forces you to take food seriously.
By example, I would learn from my mother and I recall how amazing a feeling it was seeing how products could transform and work together to create a tasty dish. It is creation in its most obvious form and it is very satisfying to be part of that, knowing that it is going to make your family full and happy... that makes it a positive and responsible job as well!
Now, in 2016 as the principal and educator in a kindergarten, which does an amazing job in developing activities for children's healthy development and with an amazing kitchen that prepares breakfast, lunch, and snack for 435 children and 100 adults, I want to emphasize the educational aspect of cooking and increased food awareness.
As something new this year, we have changed suppliers of cheese, butter, ham, sausage, juice, milk and long shelf life products to be the same or the same brands that are supplied to 5 star hotels. The fresh foods are sourced locally, whenever possible and our menu is undergoing improvements. Fresh fruit coolers have been included as a daily stable in every class-room and we are not finished yet.
Starting this October 15th all teachers, caregivers, assistants and management had a teambuilding event which taught our staff firsthand about the process of food. Each group had a secret ingredient and a modest budget of 250RMB to prepare dishes. Pre-nursery group had to grind grain to make flour and thereafter budget and plan several dishes using flour. Nursery group had pork and beef, which was delivered in huge chunks, which they had to clean, cut, separate from the bone and skin, before using the BBQ or pots and pans to cook. K1 had potato, which had to be dug up, washed and peeled before making amazing dishes such as hashbrowns, chocolate potato cake and more. K2 had fish, they had to catch live fish in the pond and cut, gut, and scale them before cooking. The management group had eggs, which had to be handled "carefully" as they tried to catch flying eggs without breaking them before making amazing dishes like pancakes, omelets, garden salads, etc. The teambuilding was not a competition to make the best dish, but it was a challenge to get hands-on and to fully understand and respect where food comes from and where our dishes are going. The food was shared among the whole group and it was an amazing day!
Now, as teachers have tried to approach food from a social / educational aspect, we will begin to adapt menu's for our kindergarten program, which will include educational aspects and shared involvement as well.
Sincerely,
Anders S Christensen,
principal and the Hui Xin team!
Nursery teachers with their secret ingredient(s), pork & beef.
Pre-nursery group using flour to prepare many splendid dishes.
K2 teachers had to catch live fish and clean, prepare them for cooking.
K1 teachers dug for potatoes in the sandbox, washed and peeled them.
Nursery teachers had to prepare pork and beef, by cutting and mincing.
Pre-nursery teachers had to use manual labor to grind grain into flour (rice flour).
Management and administration had to catch flying eggs, before cooking :).
Pre-nursery teachers chopping spring onion for chinese style pancakes.
Pre-nursery level leader making chinese style spring onion pancakes.
Rolling dough nicely for dumplings and fried dough squid balls.
Squid balls when finished.
Lotus root being prepared for a typical dish involving minced pork.
Stuffed lotus root, turned in batter and fried is very delicious.
Slices of fillet fish ready to go on the barbecue.
Fish heads being cooked in a frying pan.
Pre-nursery vegetarian patties being prepared with a mix of flour.
Vegetarian patties with carrot, potato and onions.
European style crepes with chocolate sauce by the Pre-nursery team.
Meat skewers and kebab by the Nursery team being prepared on the BBQ.
Potato and cheese sauce gratin by the K2 team
The K2 group lead by Mr. Paul and Ms. Pauline.
The K1 team lead by Ms. Celia and Ms. Jessie.
The nursery team with its leaders Mr. Milos & Ms. Lily
PN together with Ms. Lakshmi and Ms. Shirkey.
Management, supervisors and kitchen workers lead by Ms. Tina
Ayi's and caregivers had a wonderful day cooking with their teams.
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