Coen Lammers speaks with Rita Yosef, who runs the award-winning My Home Chef cooking classes for people with disabilities out of Rolleston
Rita Yosef teaches a lot more than recipes in her purpose-built teaching kitchen in Rolleston.
Students who come through the doors of My Home Chef learn knife skills, food safety and how to prepare a meal. But through cooking, they gain invaluable independence, confidence and dignity.
“Everybody needs to know how to cook for themselves, it’s a key life skill,” Yosef said.
“For many of my students, people assume they will always rely on parents, carers or support workers. We try to push them towards independence – to show they can look after themselves.”
Yosef was born in Latvia, raised in Israel and has lived in Canterbury for more than 20 years.
After years working in hospitality and teaching cooking classes, Yosef started My Home Chef from her Burnside home about 18 years ago, after a mother asked if she could teach her daughter who had special needs.
Yosef remembers the mother ringing her after three classes to say she could not believe the change in her daughter.
“That was the moment I understood how much difference this could make – not just for the student, but for the whole family.”
My Home Chef offers one-on-one cooking lessons for neurodivergent and disabled students aged 12 and over, with classes tailored to each person’s needs, diet, abilities and goals.
After moving to Rolleston in 2020, Yosef set up a new teaching kitchen with lowered benches, accessible layouts, quieter appliances, adaptive tools and personalised recipes.
“We didn’t want a cold, commercial kitchen, but a space that felt calm, homely and safe,” Yosef said.
Classes and recipes are built around the students and their tastes, not the other way around.
Students with sensory sensitivities are gently guided to explore new flavours, textures and smells at their own pace.
“If someone can only tolerate certain foods, we don’t force them. We encourage them – maybe to lick the spoon, maybe to try a new flavour – and we have had a lot of success.”
One student, Aron, has become a symbol of what Yosef believes is possible. When he first arrived, she said, he struggled to hold a knife properly. Now he cooks independently for his family three times a week.
“He even makes puff pastry from scratch – something even professional chefs can struggle with. We keep pushing, but always at the level that is right for him.”
That balance – challenge without pressure – is central to My Home Chef’s approach.
Some students come to build independence and confidence at home. Others are interested in a pathway into hospitality, with My Home Chef helping connect practical cooking skills to further training and possible certification.
Yosef said the biggest barrier was often not ability, but attitudes in the community.
“The issue I have is employers who don’t want to employ people with neurodiversity.
“They see someone who has autism and they don’t want to deal with it,” she said.
Yosef wants to see more neurodivergent and disabled young people given genuine employment opportunities.
“They need jobs, instead of benefits or support services,” Yosef said.
She is setting up a catering service from her kitchen to offer paid employment and real work experience to her students.
She said the hospitality sector always complained about a lack of chefs and helping hands, while people with disabilities represented an untapped workforce.
“We just need to accept the people who are able to work and give them a chance.”
She is planning to offer My Home Chef classes around the country, starting with Auckland.
My Home Chef has received multiple awards, but for Yosef, the most important recognition comes when a student goes home with food they have made themselves – and a little more belief in what they can do next.
“That confidence changes everything. Cooking is more than food. It is independence.”