Last month Miss Piggy and I were invited to a vegetarian cooking class at Hopewood Health Retreat in the Blue Mountains.
Located on 14 lush acres in Wallacia, about an hour drive from Sydney, Hopewood has been operating for over 50 years. Previously the property served as a guest house for 50 years, where water was drawn from the Nepean River, at the back of the property.
Hopewood, funded by the National Youth and Health Foundation, offers a number of food workshops for guests such as nutrition and food, weight management, food demonstration and the benefits of detoxing and fasting.
To ensure guests receive a healthy food experience, Hopewood doesn’t serve liquid during meals to aid digestion, starch and protein are not mixed, honey is used instead of sugar, fresh locally sourced ingredients are used and they grow edible herbs in a newly established vegetable garden.
Chef John Estival, a very kind and soft spoken Belgian, recently studied nutrition and shared some of his knowledge:
- A healthy diet should include 60-70% fruit and veg
- Heat and light reduces the nutritional value of food, resulting in less taste
- To understand the value of fresh produce, eat what is in season
- Eat food with the skin on for maximum nutrition and fibre
- Buying at farmers markets is best for fresh and local produce
- When you cheat, cheat well ie. with good quality food
- Take the time to read food labels. If you don’t understand it, put it back
- Consider the sodium (salt) content of canned goods
- If a product is ‘refined’ generally the goodness has been removed
- The ‘four culprits’ are refined sugar, refined salt, fat and refined flour
- Don’t wash mushrooms
- Pre-packaged salads contain chemicals ie. sulphur
- To remove chemicals rinse with 1 part apple cider vinegar and 12 parts water
- Calcium stays in the body for 2-3 months
- Processed food makes blood acidic, need minerals to balance out
The 3 hour holistic cooking class is held Saturdays and visitors are welcome to attend. There was about 10 in our class so we were divided into 3 groups and preparation tasks were shared between groups. As each course was ready, we sat down to eat in the dining room (with some non-alcoholic wine) which was a great way to spread out the session. Participants also get a copy of the Hopewood vegetarian cookbook to take home, which contains some great recipes. The class is $90 and for those wanting to stay, Hopewood are looking to combine the cooking class into an overnight package.
We made a delicious 3 course meal and I’d love to share the recipes with you. There is just so much to tell, so I’ll have to spread it out over a few posts!
Keep an eye out for the tasty recipes coming up:
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Potato, lentil and carrot casserole
- Coconut and tahini balls / Banana and strawberry ice cream
I have to say that I learnt A LOT in the class – John was so helpful & free in sharing his knowledge. Tops day out!
John is lovely and full of interesting facts. They have a great food philosophy, I’m looking forward to using the cookbook
Lucky duck! I’ve always wanted to go to Hopewood.
The property is lovely, it’s so quiet and peaceful.
This sounds great! Thanks for posting those nutrition tips – I have a lot to learn
Oh me too! The chef was great with sharing info – so much better than just learning how to cook a dish
I definitely needed those nutrition tips – definitely didn’t know some of the important things. Thanks for sharing
You’re very welcome, happy to help!
Thanks for the lovely words and beautiful photos, vegeTARAian. We’re glad you enjoyed yourselves and learned some new tips. Please let Miss Piggy know we enjoyed her post as well. I wasn’t able to comment on her blog – technology troubles.
You’re most welcome! I’ve got more tasty posts to come. I’ll let Miss Piggy know too
Hi, this blog is really amazing and provide me answers to all my questions. This is really informative and I will for sure refer my friends the same. I got the freebies with the Common premium and adding this now makes it all even juicier than ever.