The Nutrition and Cooking Workshops are a Hit!

Georgia runs the cooking and nutrition workshops at Poplar Union. They’re incredibly insightful, fun, and give you the chance to eat delicious food. She spoke to an 80 year old Poplar resident, former GP Mohammed Sattar, 80 yrs old, to get his views on the class.

“I came to the cooking sessions in September 2017. My interest was to learn new cooking skills because I come from an Asian background and didn’t know any foods apart from the traditional ones. It is nice to know about other dishes and nice to learn new skills. I like cooking mainly Bangladeshi food and I wanted to diversity my skills. I picked my cooking up from my mother and my wife, but I wanted to cook and taste local food, British food and international food. I am quite liberated about food; I eat anything.

I have also learned about the nutritional elements of the food, for example I now add the olive oil in at the end. Last week we cooked couscous with vegetables and I then went on to make it at home for my adult son. My son visits me every Sunday and I normally cook rice, but this time I decided to make the couscous recipe I learned in the session. My son enjoyed it very much, as it was simple, tasty and nutritious. I learned to keep the vegetables fresh when cooking so as not to lose the vitamins in them.

I enjoy the social aspect of the cooking sessions as there are other people there and we can have a chat and exchange ideas. I also walk when I come to the centre, so it gives me some form of exercise. I like to come early to the café because I like to read the paper, The Guardian. I like the open space, a modern one, and not many centres are open and light like this one is. I love sitting around and reading.

What drew me to Poplar Union first time was that I heard about a festival about Bengali music. Then I found out what’s on from the brochure. I always look forward to Tuesdays at Poplar Union.”

You can find more information Georgia’s cooking classes here.