American TV star Tiffani Thiessen talks healthy eating, life on the road and her new collaboration with Fresh Express
US salad supplier Fresh Express is working with former Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills, 90210 actress and cookbook author Tiffani Thiessen, as well as dietician and author Kylie Sakaida, to show how the brand is redefining fresh salads for today’s consumers.
Thiessen and Sakaida are part of the Fresh Expressionists programme, which spotlights chefs, dietitians, and culinary voices who inspire consumers to embrace delicious ways of eating well.
Fruitnet caught up with Thiessen at the recent Global Produce & Floral Show in Anaheim, California, to hear all about her love of produce and why she’s inspired to help Americans eat more healthily.
How did you come to be involved with Fresh Express?
My household have been fans of Fresh Express for a while. I think it’s a perfect partnership. Besides being fans of theirs, I’ve carved a side career in food for the last 10 years. They came to me and asked if I would show my creativity and how I use Fresh Express, and it was a perfect marriage.
Did your interest in food come from your fairly multinational background?
I’m a mutt, for sure! It probably did inspire my food, but I think more of my inspiration came at a young age, with all the women in my family cooking – my mum, my aunt, my grandmother. I have such big, vivid memories of holidays and family meals every week with all the women in my family cooking. So that was the start of my love of food. And then when I started travelling at a young age and going to Europe – France and Belgium and all of those places – as well as different areas of the States, and really getting influenced by different cultures and cuisines, my love of food blossomed even more.
It must have been hard to cook on the road.
It was definitely hard, yes. But that’s where my love of, for example, southern food blossomed when I got to go to the south. Or going more up north and eating seafood, and then going to Europe and learning all about different types of food. But yes, travelling is very hard. I think eating-wise, it’s important to choose properly, and I always try to get my exercise and my steps in too. Those are huge things that are super important to me when I’m travelling. That’s also why a company like Fresh Express is nice and really easy. My partnership with them is showcasing how easily you could make a really healthy life by choosing the right recipes and using their salad bags and their creations, and elevating them in different ways. I developed quite a few recipes for them, and my kids love them.
In what ways are you specifically working with Fresh Express?
I did some recipe development for them, and I’m doing a lot of social media as well as some commercials for next year. It started off as a smaller partnership, and it’s blossomed into something a lot bigger. It’s been fun.
How big a part of your life are salads?
It’s a pretty big part actually, and I have to say it’s even bigger these days, because my husband’s on a health kick. So we are packed with Fresh Express salads right now – he’s pretty much eating them every single day. And the fact that Fresh Express have a massive variety of different ones makes the family very happy. There’s always a challenge with children to make sure you’re getting vegetables in their bodies. I have a 15-year-old and a 10-year-old. They’re more apt to pull fruit out of the fridge than they are vegetables most of the time, so I think the more I can be creative, the easier it is to get vegetables in them too.
It’s quite hard to inspire kids to eat salads, whereas snacking vegetables are arguably a little easier.
A little bit easier, yes, but as they get older I’m showing them how you can do more than just take a salad bag and make a salad out of it. That’s what I’m doing with Fresh Express – showing you can actually make other recipes out of their salad bags. I love making tostadas, and when we have pizza night I’ll actually put the salad on the pizza. The Caesar salads are actually really good on pizza. My kids love the Farmhouse Ranch too. I’ve put it in salad kits for wraps, burritos… there’s lots of ways you can do it for sure.
What about kids who have less access to fruit and veg? How do you see that part of the market?
The convenience of Fresh Express is what’s nice about it. A lot of the time with those families, both the mum and the dad are working, which is the case with our household too, so there’s not a lot of time to cook meals. I’d love to sit home and cook two-hour meals, but most of the time you don’t have the time to do that. So showcasing Fresh Express and how easy it can be, and elevating it – whether it’s a simple protein or adding it to other recipes, is a great way to do it, and cost effective.
What kind of posts are you doing on social media?
Just showcasing some different recipes – they’re all pretty short, and under a minute. It’s sad, but with most people now, the attention span is usually under a minute! It’s a very different world out there now.
So what are your favourite Fresh Express products?
I would say the one we buy the most is the Farmhouse Ranch. My whole family are ranch lovers, for sure. My daughter loves Caesar’s, and my husband loves all of them. There’s not one that he doesn’t like.
How do you gauge the level of healthy eating at the moment? Are people getting more into it?
I hope so. I can only speak for myself. I think after turning 50 – and right before I turned 50 actually – I was on a huge health kick of wanting to be the best 50-year-old I could be. That age was a big turning point for me, so I got pretty serious about my health. That was driven by the exterior aspect of wanting to look a certain way, but also wanting to be around for my kids. I was a little older having my kids, and generally most women now are waiting a little bit longer. And so I just wanted to make sure that I was going to be here as long as possible. What I do, how I treat my body and what I put in my body – those are all things that mean something later on.
Absolutely. And how do you view the transmission of health messages, and the balance between focusing on health and enjoyment?
I think there’s a balance of everything – I’ve always believed in balance in all aspects of life. So eat healthy, but it doesn’t have to be boring. That’s what’s so great about this partnership with Fresh Express – I’m showcasing that. I also feel that way about, say, working out – it doesn’t have to be boring, and it can be entertaining and fun, and you can involve your kids. If you make it unfun, no one’s going to stick to it. And it’s the same way with food – if you make it unfun and uninteresting, who’s going to stick to a bland diet of chicken and broccoli? Nobody. The longevity of that is never going to last.
Tell me about your cookbooks, and what else you’re working on.
I have two cookbooks. The last one I did was almost two years ago now, and was all based around what to do with leftovers. So it was talking about food waste and things like that, and being creative with what you already have in your kitchen. Aside from that, TV is still a big part of my life. I’m going to Vancouver soon to shoot a new show for Disney called Coven Academy, which will be premiering next year.
