Patrons may only notice the more obvious charms of Nourish Coffee Bar + Kitchen, our new restaurant at the Center for Health & Wellbeing in Winter Park.
Sure, there’s the fresh fare cheffed by Collette Haw. There’s the sustainably-sourced coffee bar, an indoor-outdoor space ripe for dining and socializing. The serene ambiance of a cafe designed with your whole-person health in mind. But it’s the less concrete features, particularly the approach to healthy cooking and the chef behind it all, that make Nourish a unique experience and Winter Park’s hottest healthy dining destination.
Chef Collette Haw, Captain of the Kitchen
She’s the woman behind the popular Collette’s Clean Eats and WPHF, owner of Nourish Coffee Bar + Kitchen, is thrilled to partner with Collette Haw. As head chef and manager of this new restaurant endeavor. Collette is a Florida native who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. One of the best training schools in the world. After several years as a personal chef for celebrities and working in local kitchens. Collette set off on her own, launching a meal delivery service. Now Collette is a storefront aimed at bringing taste-forward choices to a market starving for healthy options.
“I set myself apart with the kind of food I was making when I first started out with Collette’s Clean Eats. All the other meal delivery services at that time were just doing a chicken breast with asparagus or a pork chop and broccoli. Nobody was putting together a complete meal that made people feel satisfied after eating, but was also really good for them,” Collette shared.
She’ll bring that same approach to Nourish, where members of our community – and beyond – can experience this healing power of food for themselves.
The Nourish Difference
With menu items like “Not Your Grandma’s Chicken Salad,” vegan broccoli cheddar soup, dill scones, dark chocolate, and almond flour brownies. Collette’s personal cooking philosophy and approach make her the perfect fit to operate Nourish Coffee Bar + Kitchen. Healthy food never tasted so good.
“I approach healthy foods a little differently. I believe comfort foods are really what makes you feel good… Offering healthy comfort foods make my customer feel warm, satisfied, and healthy at the same time. Making them feel good about themselves,” she said. “When people think about healthy eating, they think ‘I have to eat a salad for the rest of my life.’ That’s not necessarily the truth. There are so many other nutrient-dense foods people can eat that aren’t raw kale, that isn’t Swiss chard.”
The added flair of seasoning, sometimes an after-thought in most home kitchens, is what takes Collette’s rendition of healthy cuisine from “ho-hum” to “yum!”
“I try to incorporate a lot of herbs and spices. Many offer really good nutrients we might not be thinking about when considering healthy food,” Collette shared.
Nourish and the Seven Dimensions of Wellbeing
The guiding principle of the Center for Health & Wellbeing is the philosophy that personal wholeness comes from an internal balance of the Seven Dimensions of Wellbeing. The menu offerings at Nourish certainly meet the ‘eat better’ tenet of Physical Wellbeing. The dining space has been specifically designed to encourage connection and engagement between customers, and further enhance Social Wellbeing. Additionally, locally and sustainably-sourced foods aren’t just trendy buzzwords in the Nourish kitchen. Rather, these environmentally-conscious methods of securing seasonal restaurant provisions are at the forefront of the restaurant’s philosophy. Along with our commitment to Environmental Wellbeing.
What is Collette most excited about with the open of Nourish? It’s maybe not what you’d expect.
“I am extremely excited about the aspect of being able to reach the community so deeply at Nourish. Obviously, there are places in town that offer healthy food options. However, how much are they involving the customer or sharing their knowledge? At Nourish, we can do so much more and we can reach the community at a different level. For example, we have cooking classes and food tastings in the adjoining Nutrition Theatre, we have educational programs and literature. In addition to educational programs we also have different menu offerings. Unique food that people may have never tried before but that they fall in love with,” she said.
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