Hello Possums

I sat enjoying my packed lunch in the staff room of the Melbourne Cricket Ground on a nice spring day about 12 years ago now and suddenly she appeared, the one and only Dame Edna.  However she wasn’t wearing her signature frock and heels, instead he wore a suit and tie, and staff from his entourage called her by his real name.  Barry was there for a sound check, as rehearsals were under way for the AFL Grand Final and Dame Edna was going to perform.  Barry walked up to the lunch queue and stood patiently in line with kitchen hands, stage builders, forklift drivers, security staff, cooks and the countless other members of staff that were all at the G to prepare for Grand Final week.  As a chef I worked 10 Grand Finals at the G and it was always my favourite fixture of the year. 

Staff meals at the G have always been good value and very affordable with plenty of healthy options on offer, as you would expect at a well respected work place such as this.  In fact these days many staff canteens offer a great assortment of healthy meals and at good prices.  However, there is one really large drawback with ordering and buying lunch when at work.

And that is, one tends not to order the healthy choices.  I seldom buy lunch.  I attribute this to the fact that I was brought up in Denmark where packed lunches are the norm for everyone in all walks of life.  At kindergarten, school, university and at every workplace, people eat packed lunches every day; dark ryebread with healthy toppings.  I’m not kidding, every single day.  Everyone from floor staff to managers right up to the CEO of any given organization ride their bicycles to work and eat their home-made packed lunches together in the staff room or canteen. This is normal everyday practice, which means good health is simply at the forefront of everyday life.

I was one of the few staff members at the MCG that brought my own lunch each and every day to work.  If I had to hazard a guess, I would say around only 20% of staff, if that, would bring their own lunch.

Staff that didn’t bring their own lunch struggled to choose wisely once up at the counter, and even though there were ample healthy options available, it was the super size sausage rolls, bacon rolls and chips that got chosen.  You see, once you are at the counter and see and smell the bad goodies on offer, it’s hard for any of us to choose the steamed fish with vegetables and saffron rice.  And when asked if you’d like a drink with your meal the answer would always be a sweet fizzy drink, rarely a water.  I might be generalizing slightly here because of course some would chose the fish, occasionally, but you get my point.  Bringing a packed lunch each day to work means you don’t have to make that difficult choice in the queue when you’re hungry and can see and smell the chips.  Your packed lunch, full of healthy goodies, ensures you’re making a good choice.

Here at Kitchen Dream Team we’ve worked this into our program so that you can learn how easy it is to create healthy packed lunches in everyday life.  You should check it out if you think you could use some help in regards to eating healthy lunches each and every day.

As always, happy cooking.

Erik Jorgensen

Kitchen Dream Team