Nutritious and delicious

Goochland teen hosting dining event series aimed at sharing love of healthy food

ROSLYN RYAN Editor

Get ready for a whole new way to fill up your plate.

For Goochland resident Zoe Hitaffer, 16, an early interest in fitness and nutrition quickly developed into a passion for sharing what she’s learned with others. Now Hitaffer is on a mission to help people understand that food can be both healthy and tasty, and that preparing meals that check both boxes doesn’t have to be a major undertaking.

Beginning on Friday, April 7, Hitaffer will be hosting a weekly pop-up dinner event at Goochland Restaurant aimed at introducing diners to the kinds of healthy, no-fuss recipes that she has been perfecting in her family’s kitchen for the past four years.

The idea for the weekly cooking event came after Hitaffer met Goochland Restaurant owner Christine Fauver and the two began discussing how Hitaffer might be able to reach out to the local community in some way. When Fauver offered the use of her space (Goochland Restaurant currently closes at 2 p.m.), Hitaffer jumped at the chance.

What followed was a flurry of menu planning and logistical problem solving, all of which eventually came together to create a schedule of four eve-