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SieMatic Kitchens Help Harvard Cookie Girl Introduce Kids to Healthy Cooking and Snacking

The Harvard Cookie Girl celebrates partnership with SieMatic during grand opening launch of cooking school held in tandem with the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival held October 9th and 10th

(Feasterville, PA, October 5, 2010) — “Enriching young minds through healthy eating, one small tummy at a time,” is the mission statement of Bibi Kasrai, CEO and founder of The Harvard Cookie Girl, LLC. The San-Diego-based company was conceived in 2009 after Kasrai decided to leave her corporate executive position to combine her passion for cooking and baking with teaching children to prepare and consume healthier snacks. Kasrai will celebrate the grand opening of her cooking studio, featuring three SieMatic kitchens, at 7441 Girard Avenue in La Jolla, California during the La Jolla Art & Wine Festival on October 9th and 10th.

“SieMatic supports The Harvard Cookie Girl curriculum,” says Hans Henkes, General Manager Marketing & Sales for SieMatic Möbelwerke USA, adding, “We are thrilled to provide a platform for modifying children’s eating habits by engaging them in a hands-on program that makes cooking fun.” The business already has to its credit over 30 public and private schools that participate in its after-school enrichment programs. The programs, held at the school locations, gained quick attention, attracting Nickelodeon ParentsConnect producers, who featured six of Kasrai’s healthy recipes on their website.

The new 1,400-square-foot cooking school, which includes three SieMatic kitchens and a lounge beyond its unique boutique-style storefront, is situated adjacent the town’s oldest bookstore and coffee shop in a locale that is ideal for offering onsite classes and events – with two elementary schools on the block and five additional schools within walking distance. The street is also host to the La Jolla Open Aire Market, a popular San-Diego-area farmers market held every Sunday. Kasrai worked with local kitchen and bath design studios Design Inplace, Inc. and Fixtures Living to incorporate and create the look and feel surrounding the school’s SieMatic kitchens.

SieMatic, the revolutionary designs that have changed the way families around the world think about kitchens, was a perfect fit for Kasrai, a Harvard Business School graduate who was dubbed “The Harvard Cookie Girl” by the dad of one of her children’s friends after they had baked healthy-recipe cookies together. She understood kids working side-by-side in a classroom setting would necessitate the kind of intelligent storage space SieMatic offers, with features such as spacious toe-kick drawers. SieMatic’s safety features also played an important role with elements such as the lockable cleaning-material basket, which is designed specifically for the safety of children. On the style front, Kasrai selected SieMatic for its clean, streamlined designs, which are conducive to teaching in her kitchen classroom layouts, allowing room enough for students to spread out and work, while simultaneously creating a warm, domestic-like atmosphere without detracting from the learning experience.

“SieMatic is the ideal partner for us,” says Kasrai, explaining, “The look is clean and modern, yet comfortable and accessible.” The Harvard Cookie Girl also advocates green building and living, which aligns with SieMatic’s eco-friendly manufacturing process that operates under a “zero-waste” mandate where all waste is converted to energy. “We place strong emphasis on green living and building practices,” she points out, “and SieMatic is a key component of our efforts.”

With network cooking programs rapidly gaining popularity and new trends indicating that US consumers are spending more on home renovation – particularly their kitchens – in lieu of moving, family entertainment has turned to the home in the shifting economic environment. Kasrai believes the trend will continue to lead families to spend more time cooking in. To this end, The Harvard Cookie Girl School will reach out beyond after-school programs to change cooking and eating habits for the better on a larger scale. In addition to school programs, Kasrai will expand the curriculum to include classes in her SieMatic kitchens offered to kids and their parents, corporate team-building events, camps for young adults leaving for college, as well as more social-networking-geared classes, such as, date nights, girls’-night-out, and cooking clubs.

Currently available in over 62 countries on five continents, SieMatic is an industry leader in the high-end kitchen segment with unyielding commitment to innovative engineering and manufacturing excellence. The company philosophy of complementing a lifestyle, not just offering a product, makes it unique in the industry. From manufacturing plant to showroom floor, SieMatic’s commitment to providing its customers with “the premium lifestyle they deserve” makes the SieMatic brand name synonymous with unparalleled luxury.

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