Doha: The Yalla Natural roadshow is again taking part in Qatar International Food Festival, showing thousands of visitors that healthy food can still taste great.
The roadshow is part of ‘Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First’ campaign run by Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar (WCM-Q) in participation with the Ministry for Public Health.
Yalla Natural aims to encourage families and children to get back to basics, using fresh, organic food, doing regular exercise and maybe growing their fruit and vegetables.
To help encourage them, the Yalla Natural truck is fitted with lots of activities for the family, including a planting desk where families can plant their vegetable seeds to take home, cookery demonstrations, a healthy recipe wall, from which people can choose recipes to cook at home, and the blender bikes, where visitors are able to make delicious, healthy smoothies while exercising.
Nesreen Al Rifai, Chief Communications Officer, WCM-Q, said Yalla Natural (and the wider Sahtak Awalan campaign) aims to improve the health of the whole community.
“Through Yalla Natural, we strive to engage with everyone in the community and give them the knowledge they need to protect their and their family’s health. The festival is a great opportunity to reach out to people and advise them about healthy lifestyles, as good health is one of the core tenets of Qatar National Vision 2030.
One of the star attractions of the roadshow is Chef Eric Cousin, Corporate Executive Chef, Amlak, who is demonstrating how to cook quick, healthy and tasty meals, before offering visitors a sample of the finished dish. He also oversees Chef’s Garden, the first farm-to-table restaurant in Qatar. Chef’s Garden, managed by AMLAK in Education City, partners with local farms to bring the most inspiring seasonal ingredients from the farm to the table using the freshest, ripest ingredients nature has to offer, without added chemicals and preservatives. Eric said: “As always, it is a privilege to work with Sahtak Awalan and be able to show people that you can make great tasting food in minutes — and that it can be extremely healthy. There is too great a reliance on convenient, pre-packaged food but I have been able to show people that food can be nutritious and tastes better than anything you can take out of a packet yet does not always involve a long preparation process.”
The Peninsula
