Cooking with Curtis Australian and international TV celebrity chef Curtis Stone is delighted to be cooking with Wicked Vegies and encouraging Tasmanian high school students to get into fresh vegies and fruit. Curtis, well known as co-presenter of ABC Television's Surfing the Menu and presenter of Australian series My Restaurant Rules, is hosting a new US show, Take Home Chef. Curtis says a love of fresh food is in his blood. His late grandad was a market gardener with a passion for fresh seasonal vegetables and a love of cooking, and his mother, Lorraine , was an inspirational cook. "To me, there is nothing better in life than to start off with a few fresh ingredients, end up with something you've created and then watch someone enjoy it," Curtis says.

"I am thrilled to support Wicked Vegies in Tassie secondary schools and help improve health and wellbeing and reduce diet-related diseases among young Aussies," he says.

Wicked Vegies is a Tasmanian healthy eating initiative that supports students to create healthy snacks and meals using fresh vegetables and fruit from around Tasmania . Linking into the school curriculum, the school canteen and community partners is an essential part of Wicked Vegies to help increase awareness of healthy eating in schools and the broader community.

A Wicked Vegies competition will run throughout 2007 in secondary schools across the state and will help to identify and celebrate partnerships between schools and local growers, food retailers and councils. The competition is sponsored by the Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association (Vegetable Council). Click here for more information about the competition.

Wicked Vegies is funded by the Tasmanian Community Fund, and auspiced by The Cancer Council Tasmania with partners: Eat Well Tasmania, Heart Foundation (Tasmania Division), Department of Education, DHHS (Community Nutrition Unit) and the Home Economics Institute of Australia Inc ( Tasmania ).