Cooking up a star-studded project
A group of young entrepreneurs from Timaru are hoping to add some star power to a cookbook they are designing to help people with depression.
Appetite Aotearoa is the brainchild of year 13 Roncalli College students Hamish Scarsbrook, Isaac Matson, Michael Kemp, Oliver Noone and Marcell Meyer.
Their concept is centred on helping people through depression using hard copy cookbooks with QR codes on the pages for people to scan, linking to videos online of New Zealand celebrities speaking about their experiences with either depression or cooking.
A raft of high profile Kiwis, including the Prime Minister and several television personalities, are already on board, and the students are hoping to attract even more big names to the project.
John Key, Tim Shadbolt, Jake Bailey, Mike Puru, Art Green, Dai Henwood, Hayden Paddon, Tom Walsh, Matt Watson and The Crowd Goes Wild team are some of the figures that had backed the idea so far, Scarsbrook said.
The most recent public figure to put their support behind the idea on Monday was Prime Minister Bill English. Noone said it was important to get celebrity backing so their product could gain traction and help as many people as possible.
‘‘People look up to them and it’s someone they can relate to.’’
He said the QR code part of the book was especially important as people could ‘‘connect with the celebrities quite personally’’ by watching the videos.
A visit from All Blacks great and mental health campaigner Sir John Kirwan triggered the idea for the book, Scarsbrook said.
Scarsbrook said the celebrities had a ‘‘big mixed bag’’ of favourite recipes. Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt cited snails as his favourite cuisine, while former Prime Minister John Key’s favourite was beef stroganoff.
Currently the boys are selffunding the venture but are hoping to get local sponsors on board to get the book off the ground.