The Wholefood Kitchen

The Wholefood Kitchen Cooking in the Spirit of Kotahitanga A place to gain insights from practitioners, and share experiences.

An opportunity to connect with a growing community of people who approach food within an integral context. Above all, it is for people who would like food to support them to fulfill their potential. This site is run by Kevin Helas and other practitioners of wholefood cooking. Kevin is greatly indebted to the Concord Institute, which has provided the bulk of training of cooking within this context, and a developing understanding of the art of ‘cooking with awareness.’

12/09/2026

On the menu today. Fresh yellowfin tuna steaks, which I’ll be making into delicious Asian styled dumplings with a couple of dipping sauces.

12/09/2026

MAKE COOKING FUN AGAIN!

I’ve been cooking at the Home Show this week. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to.

11/09/2026

A moment of prayer and reflection at the start of this new day, ahead of several more cooking demos and opportunities to open up a conversation about our relationship with food, with cooking, with spirit, and everything else in between. Feeling grateful, feeling guided by life 🙏🏻❤️

10/09/2026

Come join me at the Auckland Home Show today and over the weekend, where I’ll be joining Jo Halley on stage in the Kitchen (Hall 8) to run a couple of cooking demos. Today I’ll be making delicious Asian style dumplings with fresh market fish from Oceanz in New Lynn and having a great confab with Jo about our relationship with cooking. There’ll be tasters! Join me at 11am, or at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday.

09/09/2026

🌿 Kai Aroha x The Wholefood Kitchen
Week One (RJs report)

Tonight our 0600 whānau gathered for the first of four community cooking classes.
A practical expression of Mana Motuhake o te Kai and the deeper work of strengthening identity, belonging, and hauora through kai.

Our focus is widening.
Fresh, seasonal kai remains essential, but so does building spaces where whānau feel connected, confident, and seen.

Spaces where tamariki are cared for collectively.
Where learning is shared.
Where clean‑up, kai prep, and conversation become intergenerational threads that hold us together.

We believe these community tables must grow as kai insecurity grows.
They offer stability, dignity and a way of ‘being’.

To our mums, dads and tamariki who turned up, cooked together, and sat at the table as whānau thank you.

We enjoyed a beautiful meal
hummus, soup, fresh sourdough, focaccia, butter and spices.
The kōrero was honest -our learning challenges, small wins, and the joy of trying something new.

This is hauora being lived.
This is the kaupapa growing stronger.

Week one complete.
Three more to come.
Come and join us nexr week -
please register with Rj 021 08383 721

A huge thank you to Glenavon School and the Whau Local Board for supporting us and our Glenavon Community Hub Kai Aroha community.

It’s on! Come visit me at the Auckland Home Show from today and over the next few days where I’ll be running some cookin...
09/09/2026

It’s on! Come visit me at the Auckland Home Show from today and over the next few days where I’ll be running some cooking demos at the amazing custom built Kaboodle kitchen space (Hall 8). I’ll be doing my signature ‘Soup from Scratch’ demo today, then Asian inspired Tuna dumpling tomorrow, both sessions at 11am. I’ll be running through the two sessions again over the weekend at 2pm. Oh, and today and tomorrow’s sessions will be live-streamed, probably via Home Show links. I’ll drop the link when we’re on!

09/09/2026

Community Cooking Classes, Session 1. Ready for action! Thanks to Glen Avon Community Hub, Kai Aroha team (RJ, Saskia and Kitt) and especially the Whau Local Board for their support of this initiative 🙏🏻

08/09/2026

Check it! The brand spanking Kaboodle kitchen being installed ahead of tomorrow’s opening of the Auckland Home Show. I’ll be doing cooking demos live and direct every day. Come say hello!

08/09/2026

Reflections on Cooking as a practice which both requires and offers the gift of presence

I wear many hats. In my days as a communication designer I delighted in various forms of guerilla marketing, for my own ...
07/09/2026

I wear many hats. In my days as a communication designer I delighted in various forms of guerilla marketing, for my own and various client projects. Often I did so under the radar, but this is one thing I’m happy to make a bit more of a splash with. Cooking is, after all, a political act. A powerful act of protest, but more importantly an act of empowerment, enjoyment, Aroha which we can tune into each and every day. Not just for others, but for ourselves. My mission? To clear away (very common) barriers that get in the way of engaging with cooking, and accessing the many, many gifts from doing so. I’ll be running a series of cooking demos at the upcoming Auckland Home Show which runs from Sept 10-13, stop by and say hello! I’ll doff my cap 😉

07/09/2026

It’s a wrap! Today’s lunch wrap making use of some untouched grilled Snapper from last nights dinner, which my kids tried but rejected. Good news for me as it inspired the assembly of a delicious grilled fish wrap in Lebanese bread with various condiments.

A couple of days away from the start of a Community Cooking Class series I’m running in partnership with the Glen Avon C...
07/09/2026

A couple of days away from the start of a Community Cooking Class series I’m running in partnership with the Glen Avon Community Hub, coming together to inspire, engage, empower, connect, and ENJOY the experience of cooking together, creating and sharing food. Looking forward to this one! A series of classes many moons in the making, the first series of what I expect to be many more!

Getting some Merch (aka guerilla marketing) ready for use during my upcoming series of community cooking classes in part...
06/09/2026

Getting some Merch (aka guerilla marketing) ready for use during my upcoming series of community cooking classes in partnership with the Kai Aroha team, closely followed by some cooking demos at the kitchen hub at the Auckland Home Show this week. I’ll be on stage 11am Thursday and Friday, 2pm Saturday and Sunday to run through some signature dishes designed to ignite and inspire enjoyment and engagement with cooking. Watch this space!

Sometimes simple is best. Nothing better than fresh Terakihi seasoned, grilled lightly in butter, served with Steamed Ri...
04/09/2026

Sometimes simple is best. Nothing better than fresh Terakihi seasoned, grilled lightly in butter, served with Steamed Rice, wilted greens, a drizzle of sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and sauerkraut. Happiness 🙏🏻

03/09/2026

A run through of a simple approach to cooking tempeh, a handy plant protein element of a classic ‘macro meal,’ served with brown rice, greens and other sides. A good alternative to tofu, with a unique flavour, texture and a certain ‘meatiness’ which can be enhanced through marinating and combination of other ingredients, in this case some shiitake mushrooms, mirin, tamari, ginger, garlic and sauerkraut. With thanks to the dedicated folk at Tonzu and Ceres Organics for creating these products for our enjoyment here in Aotearoa.

31/08/2026

A quick check in ahead of the start of series of Community Cooking Classes I’ll be running over the next four weeks in partnership with the Glen Avon Community Hub, RJ, Saskia and the amazing Kai Aroha kaupapa. Feeling the stirrings already of stepping into and creating this space of exploration around good and cooking, with a few nice surprises popping up here and there which tends to happen when you start floating in the right channel 🙏🏻❤️

21/08/2026

Here it is, step by step, start to finish. A delightful mix of the expected and the unexpected, as can always be expected in The Wholefood Kitchen, at your place or mine.

My home cooking clinics are a source of joy. That’s not just for me, given the opportunity to create a space of explorat...
20/08/2026

My home cooking clinics are a source of joy. That’s not just for me, given the opportunity to create a space of exploration in the kitchen, addressing what has been revealed to be very common obstacles when it comes to engaging with cooking and accessing any sort of enjoyment. It’s an honour to be invited into someone’s home and kitchen, and guide them through a series of dishes or recipes they would love to learn, whilst also passing on a plethora of cooking fundamentals, which greatly expand their capacity to set forth on their cooking journey with greater confidence, creativity and yes, joy. And it’s the joy I witness in those I work with, when they overcome these obstacles and access more of the benefits that come with cooking, that makes it all worthwhile. If you’re interested to find out more, please DM me for details.

19/08/2026

The third and final stage of a simple Mushroom Risotto, with a few tips for finishing off the dish.

19/08/2026

Step 2 of this slightly unconventional Mushroom Risotto, using Tequila instead of a dry white wine. Always room to experiment and try new flavours.

18/08/2026

Who knew? So easy to whip up a quick delicious Mushroom Risotto for lunch with a few basics and a few swap-outs of usual ingredients, including in this case some Tequila as a replacement for some dry white wine during the initial cooking phase. More simple tips to follow!

14/08/2026

Here it is! Due to popular demand, a tried and tested recipe for a Lemon Yoghurt Cake made with Almond flour. Gluten free, light, airy and delicious. Check out the link in bio to access the how-to article and full recipe on Substack. Here are a couple of tips from the article as a ‘taster.’ Tip 1: Use locally grown Lemons. If you’re going for maximum lemon-y zing, there’s no beating freshly picked lemons from your own tree, or foraged from around the neighbourhood (don’t forget to knock on your neighbours door and ask first – it could be the start of a local foraging network, or a beautiful friendship). There will be no comparison in terms of flavour and juiciness to supermarket or store bought lemons, plus it will add a real ‘homegrown’ quality to your baking, and a high degree of personal satisfaction aka you’ll feel well chuffed. Tip 3: Whisk the egg whites. This is my addition to the original recipe, in order to create extra fluffiness and airiness in the final result, especially important when using the almond flour instead of plain flour. Use high sided bowls for whisking, for obvious reasons. Tip 4: Grease and line your cake tin. Apologies if this counts as teaching your grandmother to suck eggs… but I always opt for the extra precaution of buttering AND lining my cake tins with baking paper. It saves a bit of grief when removing the cake from the tin, and elbow grease required in the washup. You might just see remnants of the marker line I drew on the baking paper using the cake tin as a guide, then cutting inside the line with scissors to get my round base.

A planning session with Saskia and RJ from the Glen Avon Community Hub Team ahead of a NEW series of cooking classes for...
13/08/2026

A planning session with Saskia and RJ from the Glen Avon Community Hub Team ahead of a NEW series of cooking classes for working families to develop confidence and competence in the kitchen, leading to greater connection, conversation, creativity, hauora, and much, much more. Stay tuned for details!

12/08/2026

A top notch Sunday roast for the fam, employing simple tips and techniques acquired over the years, reflecting on a dish which was a pivotal one for me on my cooking journey, offering many opportunities for learning and acquiring greater confidence, competence and enjoyment in the kitchen with a meal designed for sharing, celebration and connection.

Before entering into the Poutama Rites of Passage portal, I wrote an article primarily ocussed on origins and intentions...
06/08/2026

Before entering into the Poutama Rites of Passage portal, I wrote an article primarily ocussed on origins and intentions behind the kaupapa. This article can be accessed on my substack platform, with link in bio. Having travelled through and come out the other side, there is plenty more to speak of, of the power of this work, the magic of the experience, and the privilege it is to be part of, not just in service of the tama Tāne taking part, but for all involved, called to create an environment of initiation and challenge which requires all of us to step up to and beyond our edges, in the service of something beyond ourselves. In the coming days I’ll be sharing reflections from myself, and from others who took part in this journey. Tama, Tama Tāne, and Tāne. All present, (sometimes within the same being) acknowledged, honoured and respected, regarded (as much as possible) with patience and deep Aroha. Mauri Ora!

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