From Private Chef to JnrChef

From Private Chef to JnrChef: Cheshire Lad Pete cooks up a storm in his exciting new venture to teach kids how to cook!

Private chef Pete Cooks from Bollington is using his skills in the kitchen to change the way children learn to cook with a brand-new fun and interactive app and all the ingredients needed to prepare a meal for the family.

Pete Simmons and Amy Stubbs, also from Bollington have launched JnrChef – a subscription service providing children’s cookery classes and ingredient boxes delivered straight to your door. Once signed up, they deliver your box and all you need to do is scan the QR code and get the kids cooking!

I had the absolute pleasure of eating Pete and Amy’s magnificently healthy dishes at a recent fitness retreat in the heart of Derbyshire. Having eaten some of the most delectable flavours across the globe, it’s hard to find comfort and culture in home-cooked dishes but let me tell you, this duo knocks it out of the park!

You can bet I was in flavour paradise for two days straight, reminding myself that health doesn’t mean bland yet knowing I had no shot of replicating said dishes at home. When I learned they were bringing their skills to everyone’s family, I simply had to shout about it.

As summer draws to a close, back-to-school looms, and the holiday sun is a thing of the distant past, why not refresh your home dinner menu with the flavours of the world?

The interactive video cookery lessons are broken down into easy-to-follow chapters in an interactive app where your child can level up unlocking fun rewards and learning key skills in the kitchen along the way. Children will be able to learn recipes from a wide variety of cuisines from all over the world with dishes including Chicken Katsu Curry, Roasted cauliflower and sweet potato Indian curry, and Cheeseburgers with avocado and bacon, all served with accompaniments.

Every two or four weeks you can select a meat/fish or plant-based recipe. The box of ingredients come in two different sizes, to feed 2-3 or 4-5 people. The target audience is for children ages 8+ however, dependent on how much supervision is needed JnrChef is suitable for all ages.

Both Pete and Amy were brought up in Bollington and following Pete building his successful private dining company Pete Cooks over the past four years, he felt the time was right to launch JnrChef – an idea he had been planning for a while.

The pair are passionate about empowering children to make healthy choices and believe that getting children involved with cooking from a young age, can help them develop healthy dietary habits, mature their tastes, be open-minded to food from other countries and build confidence.

They aim to inspire the next generation to be more adventurous with their food choices and make informed decisions about their diet and lifestyle.

They believe strongly in making an impact on the educational system and feel that children don’t get enough opportunities to learn to cook in school anymore. Another big aim they have for this venture is to bring families together and make mealtimes enjoyable and rewarding.

Pete said “I believe every child should be given the opportunity to cook. Many children don’t experience enough cooking in school and when they do it can be pretty basic. We want to show kids that cooking is great fun and simple if you know what you are doing. We’ve also created JnrChef because of our own personal experience of the education system not preparing you for real life. Staying healthy by eating well and having the ability to cook are really important and in today’s society something that is becoming a second thought”.

They have recently been sponsored by STELLAR Kitchenware who have provided all the cookware used on set in their interactive cooking lessons and are offering a 15% discount off all their cookware to JnrChef customers. The pair have been working on the project for just over a year now and have local investors, a videography team, a graphic designer, app and web team and full-time marketing manager onboard.

They launched locally to Cheshire on Monday 14th August with plans to go national in the future. They have been carrying out test launches for the past few months before launch, sending out boxes to local families and have received some amazing feedback from families who have trialled JnrChef and couldn’t believe their children had made such a highly skilled and nutritious meal.

Amy added “One parent told us “she had been trying to get her child to eat avocados for years, but they made guacamole to go with some Mexican food on JnrChef and they ate it and loved it.”

Another said, “it was amazing to get their child to eat something other than fish fingers and frozen foods.” “From our research we’ve found that most children might not want to eat vegetables in a meal if their mum or dad has cooked it. But if they’ve cooked it themselves, then they will be more than happy to give it a go”.

I wish Pete and Amy the best of luck. They are truly sensational at what they do. Treat the whole family to a new culinary at-home experience this autumn!

JnrChef has launched on Monday 14th August. They have a limited number of subscriptions for the first month – sign up now at jnrchef.co.uk to be one of the first to experience this incredible new cookery concept for kids and use discount code LAUNCH20 to receive 20% off your first box.