Pop-up kitchen helping with cost-of-living thanks to funding from The Guinness Partnership

The team at Cracking Good Food teach people to cook from scratch using seasonal ingredients

A not-for-profit social enterprise which teaches cooking skills, helping people eat healthier at a low cost, has set up a pop-up kitchen at Darnhill Community Centre – thanks to funding from The Guinness Partnership.

The team at Cracking Good Food teach people to cook from scratch using seasonal ingredients. They are running free classes at Darnhill Community Centre, with more due to start at Newbold Community Centre this month (May).

Recipes include dishes such as bean burgers, tofu katsu curry, spring minestrone soup, and sweet and sour stir fry.

Director of Cracking Good Food, Tracey Torley, said: “The Guinness Partnership has invested an immense amount of time and finance to boost the health, wellbeing and low fuel cook from scratch skills of their residents and the wider community, which have been greatly received by the community.

“It’s been really uplifting to see the impact it’s already having; teaching people the pleasure of cooking and how simple changes can lead to a healthier diet – like learning to make a cheese sauce from scratch rather than using a packet mix which has more salt and sugar content.

“It’s about empowering people. It gives people more control over their food choices, inspires them to try new foods, encourages them to be more mindful, and better informed about food waste, and it also helps people learn healthier, low-fuel cooking techniques.”

Brian Hamlin, senior community partnership manager at The Guinness Partnership, said: “It’s often thought that eating healthily is more expensive than eating unhealthily but Cracking Good Food is showing the opposite can be true, and that cooking can be simple and easy. It’s an essential life skill.

“It’s why we’re funding their amazing work so they can continue to support more people.”

Participants in the cookery school have said they have been surprised by how much they have learned and just how tasty the dishes were.

One woman taking part said “It was amazing. The food was delicious and the interaction with the young people was very positive.”

While one of the young people in a session, simply said about one of the dishes: “I'll have that again; it was bangin’.”