On the 23rd May I was joined at the fishmongers hall with chefs Chantelle Nicholson, Gary Foulkes, Francesco Mazzei, Ben Tish with also the help of Stefan Pini & his whole team of chefs from the fishmongers hall all cooking for Food cycles 10th Gala Birthday dinner.
Food Cycle is an amazing charity that for the past 10 years has provided the equivalent of 1 Million meals to people who are hungry and lonely. Their volunteers source food and prepare meals for people who can’t afford it or people who will normally eat alone and without company. Food Cycle is great because through food they bring those people together each week and give them something to look forward to and come back the following week, building a community of guests who end up becoming friends and support for each other’s.
I think it’s an amazing initiative as food is a great social instrument. Food Cycle brings together people who wouldn’t normally have anyone to share the table with or no table at all and this is so important. I have so many lovely memories of family meals around the table growing up and even now I always love to reunite family and friends around the kitchen table. I love cooking for my loved ones and see the smiles on their faces when they taste the food that I have prepared and hear the stories they share at the table. This is what FoodCycle does, reuniting less fortunate and lonely people and giving them an opportunity to share their stories and make friends over a lovely meal each week so I was very happy to support their cause from the start and to get involved because my best memories are always linked to food and the people I shared it with.
Here are the courses cooked by the following chefs….
- Appetiser – Tom
- Starter – Ben
- Pasta/Risotto – Francesco
- Fish Course (Main) – Gary
- Dessert – Chantelle
Food cycle currently serves over 1400 people per week and the aim from the gala through fund raising is to enable Food Cycle to serve an additional 200/300 people per week throughout the country through opening more projects. Food Cycles four aims is to tackle food poverty, loneliness, food surplus and building communities through work. They support people who are hungry and lonely by serving tasty lunches and dinners every single day in towns and cities. I prepared the appetizer: pea pannacotta with crushed peas and mint. It’s a very light mousse made with vegetable stock & peas blended and set with a seaweed setting agent agar agar and served with split peas, a chilled pea soup, pea shoots and mint oil.
