With a smile and an apron, the lovely Rosalind Vera Benner appears in our homes on Tuesday and Saturday mornings once a month, providing all of San Antonio helpful and healthful cooking tips. If you’re a regular viewer of her KENS5 show, you know her as Rosie.
FROM FASHION TO FOOD
Rosie, TV chef and food expert, knows more than food. “My favorite hobby is sewing and I find a lot of time on the weekends to make clothes for my grandchildren,” says Benner.
Sewing and fashion were once the passions she thought would be her future career. As a student at Providence High School, she dreamed of going off to college to earn a degree in fashion. A simple brochure changed her course.
“Sister Angelina had brochures about a career in dietetics from the American Dietetic Association, so I decided to take one,” says Benner, whose mother encouraged her fashion-design dream, but also urged her to remain open to other opportunities.
COOKING UP A DIFFERENCE
Today, when Benner, 64, isn’t dishing out cooking tips on local television, she is the registered dietitian and culinary specialist at the H-E-B Product Evaluation Center. There, she tests and writes the cooking and heating instructions for all H-E-B Own Brand products, and develops new recipes for the store’s promotional materials and magazines.
Benner wears her apron in support of organizations like the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and the City of San Antonio, teaching healthy cooking classes for community outreach programs for children, adults and seniors.
“I truly enjoy being able to teach time-saving and healthy cooking skills to our consumers,” says Benner. “I limit recipes to six ingredients or less, and make the instructions very easy to read and do.”
For her pioneer work in the field of puree diets, she was honored with the 2002 American Dietetic Association Foundation’s Mary Abbott Hess Award of an “Innovative Culinary Endeavor” for the “Three Dimensions of Puree Diets” video training series. She is also the 2006 recipient of the San Antonio Dietetic Association’s Media Award for her work done locally in television and radio.
‘NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE’
Teaching is a role Benner relishes. She also serves as a mentor to dietetic interns, as well as to nutrition and culinary students from area colleges and universities.
“She is a true inspiration to our interns,” says Dr. BJ Friedman, a registered dietitian and director of the Texas State University Dietetic Internship. “Rosie is always a positive, motivating role model. She challenges our students to take on responsibilities and try new experiences. For Rosie, nothing is impossible.”
Benner also gives back to her alma mater by supplying internships to Providence seniors, and serving as a steering committee member for the “Building on Providence” capital campaign. A 1962 graduate of Providence, Benner is proud to have been named the 2002 Outstanding Alumna for Service.
“Rosie is very generous in volunteering her time in community projects and organizations,” says Sister Jane Ann Slater, superior general for the Congregation of Divine Providence.
FUN AND FUNDAMENTAL
Benner attended St. Martin Hall prior to Providence, and credits a faith-based education and her parent’s support for her successful 42-year career. After earning a bachelor of science degree in foods and nutrition, with a minor in institutional management, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, she went on to intern at Milwaukee County Hospital & Institutions, and also attended classes at the Culinary Institute of America.
Her first leap into the workforce was in three major Houston hospitals, directing food service departments there. Soon after, Benner started a consulting business with her sister and fellow dietitian, Margaret Vera Anderson, and developed a special diet workshop for food service employees.
“Rosie has always been a self-starter, very creative and full of energy to carry out her plans,” says Anderson.
Benner traveled across the country full time, teaching workshops. By 1990, she then had the opportunity to try video production. “I became a scriptwriter, filmmaker, actress, food stylist, editor and marketer of my training films,” she says.
COOKING TIPS AND MORE
Her advice to future chefs? “I think dietitians should use their imaginations and creativity to look for all the possible opportunities in the field of dietetics,” says Benner. “Dietitians need to be on the cutting edge of all the fields they are capable of tackling.”
Her next venture is a children’s book series about the career field of dietetics and healthy eating.
“Rosie Benner is a true gift to the city of San Antonio and our part of Texas,” says Sister Slater. “She is committed to helping all of us become better, more efficient and healthier cooks. And her enthusiasm and energy are catching.”
