About Teresa
Teresa Cutter is one of Australia’s leading authorities on healthy cooking and the founder of “the healthy chef”.
A qualified chef with over 20 years experience and accredited fitness trainer with Fitness Institute of Australia, she has combined her knowledge on food, diet and exercise to specialize in developing healthy recipes for people who love food, who love to eat and who have made a conscious decision to maximize their health and well-being. The healthy chef is not about deprivation; it’s a realistic approach to healthy eating that will last a lifetime.
Her philosophy is ” KEEP IT REAL – EAT FRESH - MAKE IT YOURSELF.”
A good diet has always played a vital role in supporting health, which is why it is so important to think about what you put into your mouth every time you eat and drink and whether or not it makes a positive or negative effect to your body.
Teresa is the author of four healthy cookbooks Bite Me, The anti-ageing cookbook, Fit Food and her latest release is called “The 80/20 diet”, voted best diet book by the UK Times on line. The revised edition of 80/20 is soon to be released as an e-book.
Teresa writes a nutritional based weekly food column for the Sun Herald called “food for thought” as well as contributing healthy recipes to House & Garden magazine and has a solid grounding as a TV celebrity chef appearing on numerous cooking segments with sunrise, today show and ACA. Teresa also consults to health professionals developing healthy recipes and diets based on their requirements.
She likes to keep active with kickboxing, submission wrestling and road cycling, combined with regular workouts in the gym. Competitive by nature, she placed second in the Australian National fitness figure body shaping (NABBA) and also won Silver for Road cycling in the South West Games WA.
Teresa is a classically French trained chef and her natural talent and passion for food was rewarded early on in her career winning Apprentice Of The Year two years running, followed by a Gold Medal at the Salon Cullinare. She recently won a silver medal for her Toasted Muesli at the Sydney Fine food show last year.
The healthy chef range of “functional foods” for health and well-being will be launched September 2012.
ME AND OLIVER STONE AT THE GYM – NOT ONLY IS HE A GENIUS - HE’S SUPER FIT !
MY JOURNEY
When people ask me how I got into all of this, what influenced my love of cooking and what got me started on my own little health crusade, I sometimes feel a little silly telling them how young I was when it all began. I started helping out in my aunt’s kitchen when I was about four years old and embarked on my health crusade when I was nine years old!
My great aunt was a good cook and baker; she would be mixing cakes by hand with a wooden spoon and churning out babka and sernik on a weekly basis for our Polish family and friends. I would watch her and help out in the kitchen – she would get me to sift the flour, prepare all the ingredients and shape piroshki with my little fingers. This was the beginning of my love of cooking.
Food was a big deal in our household: always extra large portions and second helpings coated with lots of butter. At the age of nine, I realised I was overweight. A group of high school students were doing some sort of survey and they recorded the weight and height of our class. I was shocked to discover that I was the heaviest in the class – about 10–15 kg (22–33 lb) more than most of my classmates. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It changed my life forever and was the inspiration for what I do today.
The very next day I remember asking mum to buy more fruits and vegetables for me to eat and to buy a healthier cereal with fibre and less sugar like rolled oats for breakfast. I remember refusing deep-fried foods, which forced Mum into practicing healthier cooking methods with our meals. Instead of catching the school bus, I began to walk to school. It was only a 15 minute walk though town and quite pleasant. From then on, I’d walk straight past the deli after school instead of popping in and buying bagfuls of mixed lollies or ice creams, as I used to do every day.
I’d never really participated in much sport, but I can remember enrolling myself in the school netball and basketball teams and trying out all sorts of fun school sports when we had carnivals. My aunt and uncle bought me my first bike and encouraged me regularly to go riding with them. They were about 58 year’s old at the time, had never owned a car and used to ride their bikes or walk everywhere they went. I think their example inspired my later love of bicycle racing.
I remember watching shows like the Richard Simmons show on school holidays and joining in with the exercises. I also experimented with the healthy recipes they made on the show. I made my first egg white omelette and remember showing mum that if you drain the juices from a roast chook and put them in the refrigerator, you’ll be able to skim off all the excess saturated fat and make a delicious gravy just by thickening the juices with a little cornflour (cornstarch). It was my favourite show.
Without realising it, I had lost all the excess fat within a year. I felt great! I felt fit and healthy for the first time. I could move around freely and not puff and pant. I was eating healthy and exercising regularly, and as a result was so happy and full of energy.
