Lim endorses home cooking

There have been lots of back-to-basics curriculum changes in education over the past three years and learning how to cook could be viewed as an important life skill, like maths and English. Natural health benefits are numerous, and it’s fiscally prudent, because a healthier population isn’t overwhelming the health system.

Lim spoke to the Times on the 10th anniversary of her culinary creation Bargain Box, which followed the popular My Food Bag, and commissioned research that reveals 74 per cent of Kiwis say the cost of living is making it harder to serve up healthy, nutritious meals.

The result, “sadly”, is not surprising Lim, she says.

“I see it with my friends and family that they’ve noticed a difference. It’s pretty widespread. I’ve really noticed prices go up and think it must be really hard for so many people around the country. It’s a potentially bigger issue than what we might realise right now. When it’s that number of people, that’s not just a financial issue.

“I look into the future and go, this could be a public health issue, because when you suddenly have that large majority of people struggling and buying less fresh produce and less fresh meat, less fresh food, and then shifting more to processed food.

“Over time, being a dietitian, that’s my background, I can see a slippery slope future,” says Lim. “I feel it should be taught in schools. It’s a basic, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. Food is one of the top three: Food, shelter, water. You can’t have a thriving population if their basic needs are not met. How to eat well, feed yourself well, is one of every human’s basic rights.

“There could be a huge shift if we were teaching it properly in schools. I don’t feel it’s really been done properly lately because there has been a shift to more food tech as opposed to basic home cooking skills. It’s just common sense. You have to tick off the basic foundations of what’s being taught. Teaching people how to live well and for a population to thrive.

“It really boggles my mind how government can’t see how important it is,” Lim says. “I try and keep my finger on the pulse, and over the last five years food prices have roughly gone up by about a third, round 30 per cent, which is huge.”

Lim speaks with pride when looking back at what she’s achieved in the food industry.

“We started My Food Bag a few years before Bargain Box. My Food Bag really took off. That whole concept of delivering recipes and ingredients to people’s homes so they didn’t have to plan or think about what was for dinner. It helped them eat healthier and save time, and helped families eat better quality meals around the table together.

“But we always felt we could be helping a much wider audience because there are a lot of people that can’t afford My Food Bag. We thought how cool would it be if we could make this more accessible? We always wanted to have a product that could be really accessible to a much larger audience than My Food Bag, and that’s where Bargain Box came.”

Lim says the business’ research into recipes is “in-depth”.

“We do a lot of analysis. Every recipe goes through a rigorous testing and tasting process internally. Then we also get external feedback from our customers, and recipes are rated. All that data has been collected over the last 13-14 years. It really helps shape and create what recipes we know work, in terms of the list and simplicity of ingredients, familiarity, convenience, how easy it is to cook, nutrition, with taste obviously top priority.

“One great benefit of doing a service like My Food Bag or Bargain Box is that you’ve got everything you need for the recipe, so there isn’t any wastage. It really does work. I know this because we get My Food Bag. You can mix up which meals you get. You can get some Bargain Box, some My Food Bag.

“It avoids people buying extras at the supermarket and spending money there because everyone knows when you go to the supermarket, unless you’re very disciplined, you always end up getting extras you don’t need or use. A lot of it is a loss of skill. There’s skill in knowing how to use up leftovers and turn them into another meal,” she says.

“With Bargain Box, we often suggest in our communications how to use up leftovers. We give ideas. We make the meals very generous with leftovers in mind. We do that on purpose with Bargain Box.

“It’s a money-saving thing. If you can take leftovers for lunch or have them for breakfast or your dinner the next day. It saves so much money every week. Huge amounts of money. We’re very seasonal with what ingredients we use at Bargain Box and My Food Bag. It’s the way we all should eat because it supports our local producers.”

Bargain Box meals are “very family orientated”, Lim says.

“It’s food the whole family will love, so it’s nothing too fancy or crazy. It’s often familiar comfort food favourites that people grew up with, but with an interesting twist that people might not have done before.

“A lot of feedback we’ve got from families is that Bargain Boxes taught their kids how to cook, and then also at student flats. They eat so much better.”