Alexandra Prabaharan, Nutritionist, Nourish Me

What do you do and how did you get into the industry?

I run a healthy lunch delivery service, do gourmet catering and am a nutritionist. I have always loved food, particularly the concept of healthy eating that is made delicious with bold flavours and I believed that there could be a market out there for affordable yet tasty healthy food which is why I started this service.

What’s the best/ worst part of your job?

The best part is when I hear how happy customers are with their food. It makes all the challenges worth it. The worst part when it comes to the delivery service is dealing with logistics. We have two hours to ensure all the meals arrive all over KL. With our traffic, building security policies and weather, this is a daily challenge.

What’s your favourite meal with Nourish Me?

It would have to be the first dish I created for this business five years ago. That would be the Thai Red Rice Salad. It has everything I love — nutty red rice, sweet mango, fresh herbs such as mint and cilantro and a zingy sweet sour and spicy dressing. It is a favourite for most of our customers as well.

What’s one of the craziest things you’ve seen behind the scenes?

Not so much for Nourish Me as that has a daily pattern, but with catering anything can and will go wrong. It is one of those things that as prepared as you might be, you will always have something go wrong. We once had a catering where we got the car packed in with all the supplies and we brought out the tables to put into the car but somehow managed to forget to put them in. As we arrived to the venue we realised that the tables are still in the kitchen. It was one of those mad dashes where one person had to bring all the stuff to the venue on their own while the other drove like crazy back to the kitchen to pick up the tables. Everything went off without a hitch and the client never even realised but those sort of things happen all the time and you’re always working in a hurried panic right up until the moment you see everyone enjoying the food.

The perfect day off would be…

Relaxing at the beach with a good book and an ice cold beer in hand.

A day in the life of a nutritionist chef and business owner is…

… exhausting but rewarding. You can never shut off. Even after the food is out you have to check through emails and send out more quotes and create partnerships and meet with people and at night is when you finally have the chance to do all the backed up paperwork.

What do you do for fun?

I try to meet up with my friends once a week for a few hours just to have a laugh and unwind. Otherwise, I don’t have much time for other hobbies. I love playing basketball but it’s a bit difficult to get everyone together.

What’s something you’d like guests to know about Nourish Me?

We are the most affordable healthy lunch delivery service in town and we were the first, starting under the name Lunch2U Delivery almost six years ago.

What’s your view on the food scene in KL?

When it comes to local food we are totally set. You can’t find a better place to get a variety of delicious options from different races. When it comes to the restaurant scene we’re only just starting to get better and you can see new chefs coming up with interesting takes on their view of food. It’s great to see that we finally are getting some delicious restaurants emerging.

What’s in store for you in the upcoming months? 

We are looking to add in snacks and desserts into our menu so I have to develop these recipes now and start training the team on them. Other than that we are just going to take it day by day and improve on what we can to ensure we can run seamlessly.

Find our review of Nourish Me here.