The Little Chartroom, Edinburgh
Restaurateur and Great British Menu contestant Roberta Hall-McCarron, along with husband Shaun, is cooking up hot food for the homeless and others who may be in danger of going without during the health crisis. Having joined forces with charity Soul Food Edinburgh, the pair have set up a Crowdfunder page for people to donate, and are smashing their initial target already.
Square Food Foundation, Bristol
This cookery school and community kitchen in Bristol is helping to support local families living in poverty, who usually rely on free school lunches. The classroom kitchen is now being used to cook up ready meals and prepare DIY meal kits for delivery to children and their families who may otherwise go without. Local indie food businesses have pledged support to the Square Meals initiative but donations are still needed – find out more here.
Notting Hill Fish Shop, London W11 (Notting Hill)
This long-established fish shop has teamed up with other local indies – think H.G. Walter butchers, Hedone bakery and veg shop Natoora – to form an online supermarket. The new service is helping to keep fishermen in action as well as taking on hospitality pros who have lost their jobs, all while supplying sustainable food to the community. Live in west London? You can get your order delivered, otherwise, try the click and collect service.
Summerton Virtual Whisky Festival, St Albans
This year’s Summerton Whisky Festival may have been cancelled, but it’s popping up in a brand new guise. The clever folk behind it have reimagined the event as a virtual one, meaning whisky fans can still hear great speakers talk live and try new drams from the comfort of their own home. Happening on 30th May, it has a full programme of events, with the necessary goodies being delivered to ticketholders prior to festival day.
Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, London (Hackney Wick and Bow)
Famous for her Ghanaian food, Zoe Adjonyoh is now working to produce wellbeing kits and hot meals for delivery to vulnerable people in the local community, all the while providing employment for people who have lost their incomes due to the Covid-19 crisis. Zoe is teaming up with other local services to reach those who are in most need and is calling for support on her Crowdfunder page.
Alchemilla, Nottingham
After witnessing a nurse unable to buy the essentials at the supermarket between shifts, chef-patron Alex Bond started using his Michelin-starred restaurant’s kitchen to cook ready meals for frontline NHS staff. Originally donating 400 meals a week, Alex has now partnered with Open Kitchens to feed even more key workers and vulnerable people across Nottingham, free of charge. Want to help? Donate here.
Boozy Events, Aberdeen
Struggling to find indoor activities for a lockdown birthday or celebration? You’re in luck: this mobile bar business has come up with new in-home cocktail tutorials. Let the team know what alcohol you have to work with and they’ll put together a bespoke menu and interactive online class with one of their experts. They’ll even deliver all the necessary equipment and garnishes to your door in advance. (There are tutorials on their Instagram page, too.)
Hensol Castle Distillery, South Wales
This craft gin distillery is doing its bit to support key workers by creating a different kind of alcohol. Originally due to launch their new gin experiences and distillery tours at 400-year-old Hensol Castle this spring, the team are instead working seven days a week to knock out more than a million litres of much-needed hand sanitizer a month.
Pasta Evangelists, London
This pasta delivery business is supporting the hospitality industry while helping us to create restaurant dishes at home. Its new #RallyForRestaurants meal kits are created in collaboration with chefs from top London restaurants, with part of the profits going back to the respective business. Ben Tish shared his recipe for Norma’s signature pasta alla Norma to kick the campaign off. Dishes and restaurants change weekly and delivery is national – hooray!
The Roasting Shed, London E9 (Hackney Wick)
Get freshly roasted coffee delivered to your door with this roastery’s Kind Coffee Subscriptions. Not only does the subscription guarantee your caffeine fix, but it’ll also see a free bag of beans sent to an NHS worker or vulnerable person (who you can nominate if you have someone in mind) with each new sign up. Choose espresso, decaf or rotating seasonal blends for your caffeinated delivery.
The Supper Collective, York
A group of indie food businesses have joined forces to create The Supper Collective. It’s aim? To feed local residents and healthcare workers. Top restaurants and producers such as Pig and Pastry, Haxby Bakehouse and Skosh are involved in cooking the heat-at-home meals, which are delivered to approximately 100 grateful recipients each day. The Supper Collective needs funds to keep running – you can donate here.
Bristol Food Union, Bristol
This newly formed collective of food and drink businesses has two purposes: first, to support independents (its website tells customers where they can buy groceries and meals and allows them to donate to the industry) and second, to feed frontline workers. Chefs such as The Pony and Trap’s Josh Eggleton and Elliott Lidstone of Box-E are donating their time to cook up top-notch meals for this cause (as well as for charity Caring in Bristol, which has launched an emergency appeal to feed the city’s homeless and vulnerable). Donate to Bristol Food Union here, and to Caring in Bristol here.
Comfort cookbook, Devon and Cornwall
A new digital cookbook is soon to be released, packed with recipes from top chefs and producers from across the South West. Comfort has been conceived to raise funds for Hospitality Action, a charity supporting hospitality workers which is in need of emergency funds. Nathan Outlaw (Restaurant Nathan Outlaw), Paul Ainsworth (The Mariners) and Elly Wentworth (The Angel) are all in on the action, providing family-friendly recipes to cook at home. Get your copy by donating here.
Wahaca, across the country
The Mexican restaurant group founded by MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers is hoping to inject some sunshine and festival feels into our cooking during lockdown with Wahaca At Home. This new online resource promises recipes (think picadillo chilli, tortilla soup and chicken quesadillas), as well as playlist inspiration and activity ideas to recreate the tastes and vibes of Wahaca in your own kitchen. Follow on Instagram for Thomasina’s cook-along videos, too.
Lina Stores, London W1 and N1 (Soho and King’s Cross)
The team at Lina Stores has raised more than £24,000 (and counting!) to produce and deliver care packages to London-based hospitality workers whose income has been affected by COVID-19. If you donate £20 or more via the GoFundMe page you’ll get a 20% discount when you eat in the restaurants during their re-opening period. Meantime, the delis are still open for grocery shopping and Deliveroo orders.
Bodega Rita’s, London N1 (King’s Cross)
From the people behind Bodega Rita’s, Rita’s 4 U allows local Londoners to order premium groceries online to be dropped off on their doorstep. Natural wines like Calcarius’ Hellen Bianco and Domaine Les Vigneaux’s Syrah are on the virtual shelves alongside kombucha, ready-mixed cocktails, pickles and hot sauce. Great news if you’re due a fix from this ace deli and wine shop.
Yard Sale Pizza, London (various)
Not only is this group of pizza joints offering a 50% discount for NHS staff on takeaways (25% on deliveries), but it’s also cooking up pizzas for local hospitals (Whipps Cross, Homerton, and Royal London) for free, so staff can get food on-site. Donate to the cause via the website – and don’t forget you can still order pizzas for no-contact home delivery, too.
Slow Life, Good Life, Dorset and Devon
A group of food pros have put their heads together to create this new online community and resource. It aims to help us save money, eat well and maintain connections amid the current crisis. The £5 per month membership fees – for which you get three video tutorials a week from the likes of Gill Meller and Steven Lamb, access to an exclusive Facebook community with experts on hand, and weekly live broadcasts – pay for food for the vulnerable, too.
Carvetii Coffee Roasters, Cumbria
This coffee roaster is continuing to support Cumbria’s hospitality businesses by donating beans to local coffee shops. It works like this: when ordering Carvetii’s tea and coffee online, customers get to choose their favourite Carvetii-supplied outlet, and 10% of each order’s value will be converted into free beans for them (that’s a kilogram of coffee per 16 bags sold online).
Berber & Q, London E8 (Haggerston)
Founders Josh Katz and Mattia Bianchi are doing their bit by keeping our NHS workers fuelled up with their famous fire-cooked food – for free. So, while the restaurant and shawarma bar are closed, the team are still pulling shifts in the kitchen and sending deliveries out to local hospitals. The new project is called Berber & You and it needs donations – get involved here.
Lyaness, London SE1 (Southbank)
This cocktail bar – named one of the World’s 50 Best – sees lockdown as a prime opportunity to learn a new skill and get mixing (not to mention drinking) libations at home. Founder Ryan Chetiyawardana (AKA Mr Lyan) has started filming recipe videos on Instagram, encouraging us to bring the household together over delicious concoctions.
The Cauldron, Bristol
In a bid to support indie businesses as well as its staff and customers, this restaurant – normally known for its solid-fuelled fire cookery – has transformed into a grocery and meal delivery service, having teamed up with a local cab firm. Its new online ordering system promises everything from produce boxes to meal kits and even toiletries (their famous Sunday roasts are available, too.)
Six Poor Folk, Yorkshire
The team behind this popular bar were quick to act when it seemed food businesses and self-isolators might be at risk. They created Knaresborough Delivers, a new service that allows people to order food from their local independents (eateries as well as shops), and have it delivered to their door.
knaresboroughdelivers.com
Cater Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Usually to be found serving up his fine-dining food at events as a private chef, Barry Bryson is setting up camp in the kitchen for the foreseeable to cook homemade ready meals – think pies, tagines, and curries – for contact-free delivery. The dishes come in large portions, ready to be divided up and chilled or frozen at home.
cateredinburgh.com
Bar 44, Wales and Bristol
On closing, these popular tapas outfits first used up all their remaining stock to make freezer meals to tide staff over, and now they’re offering Spanish cooking ideas on Instagram, with recipes and videos so we can recreate their Mediterranean-inspired meals at home.
Rogan & Co, Cumbria
Not only are Simon Rogan and his team of chefs making ready-to-heat meals for a mere £5 – which are available alongside produce like home-baked bread and beer, all for delivery – but they’re using all the profit they make (after the cost of ingredients) to fund food for vulnerable locals, too.
Healeys Cornish Cyder Farm, Cornwall
This cider-making team have turned their hands to making urgently required sanitiser for the Royal Cornwall Hospital, free of charge. The sanitiser is made in the on-site distillery, normally used to make gin.
Brickell’s Ice Cream, Somerset
This small South West outfit makes ice cream using fresh milk from its very own herd of cows – and is now delivering it locally for free if your order totals more than £15.
Pippy Eats, Manchester
Former winner of the BBC’s Britain’s Best Home Cook programme, Pippa Middlehurst cooks at events, hosts workshops and has her first cookbook on the way. She’s bringing extra sunshine into people’s lives now too, with new meal kits (dan dan noodles for dinner?) containing everything needed to make a killer meal (delivery across Manchester) and an updated online shop which now features the likes of her homemade Sichuan chilli oil.
Carters of Moseley, Birmingham
Brad Carter was crowned Sustainable Star at the olive Chef Awards 2018, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down in his foodie pursuits, having just launched new smile-inducing food hampers to keep us well fed at home. Containing cooked meals as well as raw ingredients, they even have optional wine pairings, too. Delivery is free within 10 miles of the restaurant.
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