Last month, we officially welcomed Els Moolhuijsen (pictured right) to the Fresh Forward Hospitality team. Els has been working regularly at Fresh Forward since March 2019 and even though everyone knows her by now, now is a great time to get to know Els a little better.
Career Switch
In February 2019, Els sent a message to Anneke with the subject "career switch. After working in youth services for over 25 years, she had just stopped working for a month to focus on something new. That "something new" was the dream for her to turn her big hobby: cooking and baking, into her job. After the message to Anneke, an invitation to come over for a cup of tea soon followed, which immediately felt like a warm welcome to Els. After this acquaintance she was regularly flown in to assist the kitchen team. Els: 'From the beginning I felt the confidence and freedom to be there cooking and all ideas were welcome'.
'In the beginning, I tried all new dishes at home first, usually to the delight of my family. I am married to Hans and we have a son and a daughter, Joep (27) and Loes (25). The children live in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and work and study there. We have lived in Hilversum for about 24 years now, but originally we are from Brabant. After Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Diemen, we lived for several years in Brussels and Quito (Ecuador) for Hans' work at the time. Once back in the Netherlands we ended up in Hilversum'.
Own vegetable garden
In addition to cooking and baking, Els does a lot of work in her own vegetable garden. That's also quite a learning process. 'I have since found out that two zucchini plants produce enough zucchini to provide gallons of soup for Fresh Forward, friends, family and ourselves. The first year I had 12 plants... The vegetable garden has made me cook more seasonally and I definitely want to do the same at Fresh Forward. I also love to hike, bike and do a bit of birding, being outside!'
