Chef Accreditation
Posted on June 24, 2024
Congratulations to Deven who has qualified as an accredited Early Years Chef, and now has her certificate to prove it! 
One of our core ambitions over the past decade at Incy Wincy's is to place nutrition, movement & overall health at the centre of what we do, not just giving it a little extra emphasis for a healthy eating week or because it will appeal to parents, our aim is for it to be what we do day in, day out, our normal. To do this we need a team who understand why it matters, and who is more important than our Chef in helping us to support the wider team, families & of course to cook our Yummy Meals. Deven joined Sean Cowden, Chef Trainer in London each week for her online tutoring, to complete her training. In this she covered themes such as the impact healthy food has on children's development, her role as a nursery chef, how to adapt recipes to make them healthier and how to link the menus to the wider activities in nursery. Deven who like many was juggling work, study and family throughout her course and managed to balance things in her usual organised and can-do manner, she met every deadline and did it well; her qualification is well-deserved.
This aspect of nursery life has become more important to us over the past year, like households nurseries have felt the effects of the sharp rise in the cost of living and many have looked to save money by trimming their food offering. Naturally we look to cut wastage and spend wisely but after some consideration we decided to keep the principals around our snacks & meals the same. Our belief in the quality of early years food and importance of nutrition has not changed, if anything recent findings around children's health have reinforced our beliefs and in discussion with families attending Incy Wincy's it is clear this matters to them too.
Deven now uses everything she has learnt, and some extra Incy Wincy knowledge each day and is currently busy finishing her Yummy Summer Menu which will be introduced in nursery on Monday 1st July.
Would you like to learn more, if so here are some links to get you started there is so much more and of course while some focus on schools we know these healthy habits start in the Early Years - at nursery & at home: