Louise Fulton Keats is an Australian food writer and nutritionist. The granddaughter of the famous Margaret Fulton she has grown up with food and having switched careers from lawyer to foodie, she is imparting her own and her family's vast knowledge of food to the public through her books.
She lives in Sydney's Inner West with her husband John and their son, Harry (almost 3).
Louise Fulton Keats
C4K: You've just launched your third cookery book. When did you first decide to take up cooking and how did you end up writing about it as well?
LFK: Cooking is in my blood as both my mother (Suzanne Gibbs) and my grandmother (Margaret Fulton) are food writers, so I grew up in their wonderful world of recipe testing, food photography and eating for a living, and I always dreamed of having a job that I loved as much as they loved theirs. I actually started my career as a lawyer, although I took some time out from that to study at Le Cordon Bleu. I had such fun there that I started thinking more seriously about pursuing a career in food, but I was never able to tear myself away from the legal world. It wasn't until I went on maternity leave in 2009 that I finally had the time and space I needed to take the plunge and move over to working in food full time. I've been flat out ever since, undertaking nutrition studies at Deakin University and writing three books – as well as being a mum – but I've adored every minute and haven't looked back.
C4K: Cooking, creating recipes and writing are all very time-consuming, how do you juggle family and work?
LFK: Like every working mum, with enormous difficulty! I feel like I'm always going at a million miles an hour and it's rare that I feel like I'm doing either as well as I'd like to. I would love to have more time with my son and I would equally love to have more time for my work. So I live with the balancing act and the compromise and resign myself to the fact that it's pretty normal to feel torn and spread very thin. One way in which I am very blessed is to have a mum and dad who live in the same suburb and who are both happy help out at the drop of a hat. My son adores visiting his Grandma and Grandad which makes it easier to be away from him.
C4K: What sort of child care do you use and how does it work for you in terms of schedules and convenience?
LFK: I have a nanny three days a week and she is also a grandma to two little girls who have become like sisters to my son. They have a fabulous time together going to the zoo, the park, dance classes, gymnastics, the beach ... all those fun things you can do with a toddler. The other four days he is all mine, although if I have unexpected meeting or deadline, I can call on my mum and dad for last-minute help. My husband works full-time, long hours, but he is around on the weekend and we'll often take advantage of having my parents nearby and sneak off for a Saturday dinner on our own. As tempting as having an iPhone and laptop makes it, I virtually never attempt to do work when I'm with my son. I figure that he has three days without me; he deserves my attention when I'm around.
C4K: Sounds like you have a great set up with your nanny and dividing your time. Are there any downsides, like the dreaded "motherguilt" for example?
LFK: My nanny is heaven sent and I'm forever grateful I found her. She is warm and caring and just wonderful with my little boy. Having said that, there are days when I still find it heart-wrenching to hand Harry over to her, particularly when we've just had our weekend together and we're joined at the hip. Just this morning he started singing a song that I didn't recognise and I got a bit of an ache that he'd learnt it from someone else and I'd missed out on that moment of his life. But I would be lying if I said I wanted to be an around-the-clock mum, because I adore my work and would miss it terribly if I had to give it up. There are also days when I relish being able to dress up nicely, put on some heels and not have a toddler clambering all over me, mushing food into my hair.
C4K: How does your nanny measure up in terms of your own food philosophy for your child? Would you ever consider going on the road like Jamie Oliver to teach child care services about healthy meals and food education?
My nanny is very much on board with my food philosophy. She's read my Cooking for Your Baby and Toddler book and she knows how important it is to me that my son eats well. I actually prepare his snacks and lunches on the days he's with her, so it's easy to make sure he's eating the kind of foods I'd like him to. Having said that, as my nanny knows, I'm pretty relaxed about him having sweet treats, because I believe they're an important part of every child's life. More important to me is that he's getting plenty of variety and trying a new or less-familiar food every day.
As for food education, yes, I passionately believe that all chefs and food writers have a lot to offer. Last week I spent the morning with two classes at Nicholson Street Public School as part of the "Week of Tastes" program. I cooked pasta with them and chatted about taste preferences and how our sense of taste develops. It was great fun!
C4K: Fussy eaters – nature or nuture?
LFK: There has been a lot of international research done on this and we now know that although infants are born with certain innate preferences (such as a preference for sweetness and a dislike for bitterness), most taste preferences are learned over time according to exposure, family life, culture and so on. While some children are naturally more adventurous eaters than others, you can take steps to avoid fussiness in even the most cautious child and there's no doubt that ‘nuture' plays a hugely important role.
C4K: What are your top three tips to get children to eat healthily?
LFK:
- Start them on family meals from the time of starting solids. With the exception of removing added salt and sugar (and other baby no-no's like honey), just give your child exactly what you're eating – perhaps pureed or mashed to an appropriate consistency – from the very beginning. It will allow him to develop a taste for your cooking and will minimise fussiness down the track.
- Build familiarity – one of the key factors dictating whether a child will eat a particular food is familiarity. The more foods your child is familiar with, the more diverse her diet will be. I'm willing to bet that if your child has never seen a kiwi fruit before, she's not going to want to try it when it turns up on her plate at a friend's house. But if it's something she's used to seeing at home and she's seen the rest of the family eat it, she'll be way more likely to give it a go. There is virtually no limit to how you can build your child's familiarity, including by playing fruit and vegetable guessing games, singing Wiggles songs and weaving different ingredients into storytime. My son was hesitant about trying a plum the other day, but when I reminded him that the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate three of them, he was willing to give it a go. It's just a matter of taking away the scary, ‘yuck, what's that?' factor and making as many foods as possible a normal part of your child's life.
- Be a good role model. A number of studies have found that the number of vegetables liked by a child's mother (and, to a lesser extent, by a father) is a reliable predictor of the vegetable variety consumed by the child. You can hardly expect your child to love lentils and brown rice if you prefer to eat take-away pizza every night. So, as boring as it may sound, your little shadow really is soaking up your every move and if you eat up your veggies he's more likely to do the same!
LFK:
- Don't hide all his vegetables – sneaking vegetables is an excellent way to improve the diet of a fussy eater. There's probably not a parent anywhere who hasn't tried putting pureed veggies in a Bolognese sauce. But it's also important to keep serving up vegetables in their whole form so that your child is familiar with them and learns that it's normal to have something green at every dinner. Even if he doesn't touch them, simply having them on his plate is hugely important step in overcoming fussy eating.
- Don't reward food with food – by saying ‘if you eat your peas you can have some chocolate ice cream', you're simply emphasising what your child already thinks … that peas are a horrid chore, a dreaded task, and that cake is a special treat, a wonderful reward. You're actually making peas even worse in her mind, and cake even better. If you want your child to eat peas, serve them regularly, make mealtimes a positive experience and eat peas yourself. Just don't offer her any cakes for her efforts!
- Be strict on your shopping, not your child – the weight of research now suggests that the more restrictions you place on your child's consumption of a particular food (like those chocolate Tim Tams at the top of your cupboard!), the more likely he is to want that food. As it turns out, the forbidden fruit does taste better. The research says that the best approach is to be strict on your shopping list – keeping unhealthy foods to a minimum – but when those foods are in the house and your child knows about them; don't overly restrict his access to them.
LFK: There is a famous story in our family involving me as a three year old throwing an avocado at my mum that she was encouraging me to eat, but for the most part, yes, I think I have. Mum has photos of me in nappies eating pippies that we'd just collected from the beach and cooked over a camp fire. Because diverse foods were just such a normal part of my childhood and the idea of a 'kid's meal' was non-existent, I learnt to eat like mum and dad from the word go.
For more information on Louise and her books go to:
www.louisefultonkeats.com www.hardiegrant.com.au
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