Public speakers come in many shapes and sizes – some are motivational, some inspiring and some frankly obscure. In my corporate life (before becoming a chef), I sat through many conferences and team meetings with guest speakers – from drivers of sub-sonic cars, to bobsleigh teams, to a woman who rowed solo across the Atlantic, to someone who used geese as an analogy for team building.
All these speakers encourage us to change our lives, or at least our work lives, how to work fitter, faster, smarter, be more competitive and so on. Very few look at how we look after ourselves to meet those challenges.
‘The Alchemy of Food’ presented by Kumud Gandhi is the exception. Kumud is a food scientist, published author and keynote speaker on health and wellbeing for peak personal and professional performance.
‘The Alchemy of Food’ is an inspirational non-jargon scientific look at the food we eat and motivates us to understand what we consume and the affect it has on us.
During the interactive speech, Kumud covers the nutritional and medicinal benefits of herbs and spices, and why certain ingredients are put together in a recipe. Kumud explains how the medicinal value of ingredients, known to our ancestors, that has been lost in the mists of time is present in modern day recipes and medicine. For example we don’t know why lemon is paired with fish, apart from it tasting nice! In fact it helps us digest the fish.
Using her food science background, Kumud explains how certain foods can affect our health and wellbeing including the changes in our brain, our levels of resilience, need for hydration and nutrition.
The difference with the Alchemy of Food from other motivational speeches is that you can make an instant change to your life, health and wellbeing through understanding what you are eating and how it affects you. For team managers, it can be part of managing your team and dovetail with your corporate wellbeing programme. It is always very well received by our clients who go away inspired by ‘going back to basics’ on flavour and information about the ingredients we use every day.
So what was life changing from all those speeches I sat through? What did I learn from the sub-sonic car driver and the bobsleigh team? Not much. Debra, the woman who rowed solo became a friend and her example of ‘choosing your attitude’ encouraged me to run a half marathon. And as for the goose-herder – the goose bit him, which is some form of feedback and the most memorable part of the speech!
‘The Alchemy of Food’ can be a one off presentation at a team meeting, or the introduction to a team build and is an excellent way of learning about health and wellbeing.
If you are interested in having a different motivational speaker at a team meeting or conference, please contact: Kumud@thecookingacademy.co.uk
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Kumud Gandhi is a Nutritional Food Scientist bestselling Author, Broadcaster, and Keynote Speaker on the subject of nutritional health for productivity & performance in the workplace. In 2010 Kumud founded ‘The Cooking Academy’ a cookery school that focusses on cooking for nutritional health and wellbeing. Kumud regularly presents to international audiences on a variety of topics such as ‘Eating for Immunity and a Lifetime of Wellness’. She is an expert in the field of Wellness in the Workplace and works with organizations to create transformational change in employee health & well-being through nutrition and health coaching.
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