Dinnington couple spread healthy eating message online

Jefferson (45) and Joanne Oldfield (32) have set up Learn to Cook with Jo on Youtube, Instagram and GooglePlus.

The Dinnington pair film their workshops in their own kitchen on a mobile phone and have already had a good reaction to their productions.

Now the pair want to continue cooking up their tasty online offerings which cover starters, main meals and desserts.

Jefferson said that the project began in July after the couple did some research on people’s eating habits.

They carried out their own survey and found that people of all ages were opting for fast food rather than healthier, home cooked options.

Jefferson said: “I could not believe how many young children only had fast food. It’s something they can eat quickly and get on with what they are doing. But they don’t know what’s in them.

“We spoke to people in the 30 to 40 age range who said they had not got time to cook. That tells me they use fast foods as it’s a lot quicker.

“I have spoken to older people and the top answer was that they were not bothered about what they ate now.”

Jefferson admitted that a few years ago he put on some weight and decided he needed to lose it again, so he started exercising and looking at eating better.

He said: “I started being aware of what the green and red labels mean in shops.

“I talked to my wife to see if we could find out more about it.”

The pair went to the Ministry of Food in Rotherham to learn to cook, as well as finding out more at home. 

Jefferson said that when the couple married in 2014, he tended to do the cooking but when he was registered visually impaired Joanne had to do more.

“I could not do the cooking so I had to pass it on to Joanne,” said Jefferson.

But their interest in healthy eating and home cooking grew and with it an urge to pass on what they had learnt to others.

Jefferson said he had worked out that people could actually make their own meal in the time it took to cook or buy fast food, so the couple decided to show people how to prepare a meal in a straightforward, step-by-step way via short videos made in their own kitchen.

Jefferson said: “I wished I could do a bit more and I asked Jo what we could do to help people to cook.

“We only started the videos in about July. It’s been going a few months.

“I do the filming side of it. I just film with my mobile phone, and I do the introductions.

“It’s getting the point across. It’s very very basic.

“It’s like little TV programmes.”

Jefferson said that the videos show all the ingredients laid out clearly, before Joanne shows in a straightforward way how to put them together to create a tasty meal.

But they are not cooking up fancy and intricate dishes like the top TV chefs.

“We want to do what the people watching want to make,” said Jefferson.

“We think that everyone should be eating healthier. That’s why we are doing it. It’s just something that we want to do.

“I just want people to use us. 

“What we would like to do is for Jo to do a Ministry of Food type thing in our own little place.

“We did it mostly to just find something to do in our own time. It’s a hobby and something we like doing.

“We are doing it as a couple.”

There have been around 10 posts of Learn to Cook with Jo so far with more in the pipeline.

You can follow @learn_to_cook_with_jo on Instagram, or search for the videos on Youtube and GooglePlus.