It’s a Thursday morning and I’m at a community centre in East London to learn how to cook a nutritious meal for under £1. In a city where a bunch of coriander can cost 78p and Brexit has
pushed up the cost of even basic ingredients, I’m intrigued to see whether such a thrifty cooking class can actually work.
Today’s students range from teenagers in Nike tracksuits and white sport socks to pensioners. We take our seats in front of a table set up with a small portable stove and a chopping board. A teacher wearing a red striped apron welcomes everyone and the class begins.
“Today we’ll be making chili sin carne and sticky fried rice,” she says, first showing us how to sweat chopped onions on a low heat with garlic.
The teacher is Alicia Weston, a think tank researcher who set up the Bags of Tastecookery class with funding from the West Hackney Parochial Charity. The aim is to help those living on low incomes in East London eat healthily and save money. All classes are free to attend and feature a cookery demonstration, followed by a chance for students to split into smaller groups and recreate the dish themselves. At the end of the class, everyone sits down together to enjoy what they have cooked. Students are also offered a bag containing the ingredients to make four portions of the day’s recipe at home for £3.
Eating well for a quid sounds impossible but Weston hopes to show people that through bulk buying, identifying the best supermarket offers, and swapping more expensive ingredients such as red meat for chickpeas, it is possible to reduce food costs.
“Iceland sells the cheapest chopped tomatoes,” she tells us as she empties a can into the frying onions. Later on in the class, she shows us a diagram that illustrates why it’s better to buy large bottles of soy sauce, rather than lots of small ones.
As the tomato sauce for the chili sin carne begins to reduce, Weston adds paprika and cumin. Volunteer Linda, who has been assisting in the demonstration, shares some of her own advice on preventing food waste and saving money.
“You can keep onions in the freezer,” she tells the class. “I chop whole bags of them, my husband comes downstairs and I’m crying my eyes out holding a knife—he gets quite worried.”
After the demonstration, the students break into groups to try the recipe themselves. I watch volunteer Yvonne’s group make a start on the chili, with some of the teenagers fighting over who gets to slice the garlic. One student accidentally drops a plastic sandwich bag of sweet corn into the pot and watches transfixed as it sinks to the bottom. No one seems to mind.
I ask a student named Ali how he found out about Bags of Taste.
“Alicia told me about it at the Jobcentre,” he explains. “I thought, ‘Yeah I’d like to know how to cook.’ Normally I just eat plain chicken breasts with rice, it’d be nice to make proper stuff for my mum.”
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Featured in Vice magazine
News, PressToday’s students range from teenagers in Nike tracksuits and white sport socks to pensioners. We take our seats in front of a table set up with a small portable stove and a chopping board. A teacher wearing a red striped apron welcomes everyone and the class begins.
“Today we’ll be making chili sin carne and sticky fried rice,” she says, first showing us how to sweat chopped onions on a low heat with garlic.
The teacher is Alicia Weston, a think tank researcher who set up the Bags of Tastecookery class with funding from the West Hackney Parochial Charity. The aim is to help those living on low incomes in East London eat healthily and save money. All classes are free to attend and feature a cookery demonstration, followed by a chance for students to split into smaller groups and recreate the dish themselves. At the end of the class, everyone sits down together to enjoy what they have cooked. Students are also offered a bag containing the ingredients to make four portions of the day’s recipe at home for £3.
Eating well for a quid sounds impossible but Weston hopes to show people that through bulk buying, identifying the best supermarket offers, and swapping more expensive ingredients such as red meat for chickpeas, it is possible to reduce food costs.
“Iceland sells the cheapest chopped tomatoes,” she tells us as she empties a can into the frying onions. Later on in the class, she shows us a diagram that illustrates why it’s better to buy large bottles of soy sauce, rather than lots of small ones.
As the tomato sauce for the chili sin carne begins to reduce, Weston adds paprika and cumin. Volunteer Linda, who has been assisting in the demonstration, shares some of her own advice on preventing food waste and saving money.
“You can keep onions in the freezer,” she tells the class. “I chop whole bags of them, my husband comes downstairs and I’m crying my eyes out holding a knife—he gets quite worried.”
After the demonstration, the students break into groups to try the recipe themselves. I watch volunteer Yvonne’s group make a start on the chili, with some of the teenagers fighting over who gets to slice the garlic. One student accidentally drops a plastic sandwich bag of sweet corn into the pot and watches transfixed as it sinks to the bottom. No one seems to mind.
I ask a student named Ali how he found out about Bags of Taste.
“Alicia told me about it at the Jobcentre,” he explains. “I thought, ‘Yeah I’d like to know how to cook.’ Normally I just eat plain chicken breasts with rice, it’d be nice to make proper stuff for my mum.”
For full article click here
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3 great student stories
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Dishing Up Confidence at a Hackney Food Class
PressFood poverty is a growing concern in the UK and lots of communities are setting up innovative projects to get people cooking and to bring neighbours together.
Financial inclusion officer, Susan Janes, went along to the Bags of Taste Cooking Project in Hackney after hearing about it on Facebook.
I went with one of my Hackney residents – she is struggling with her finances and also finds it hard to leave her house due to depression. I thought a cookery class was the perfect opportunity to build her confidence and help her save money on food.
The set-up was great; the free class was held in a local church hall where the friendly team dressed in stripy aprons had set up induction hobs and other cooking facilities. All of the ingredients were provided and the team made sure that any food intolerances and preferences were considered.
The group was mixed, with people of all ages watching as Alicia – the teacher – showed us how to cook the dishes. She gave us tips on the best places to buy meat and produce locally and how to cut vegetables so that nothing is wasted. She taught us how much flavour spices could add to a dish, how to store them properly and use them in everything from salads to drinks.
Then it was our turn as we recreated the dishes under the watchful eye of her volunteers. Any nerves were soon removed by the friendly atmosphere and enthusiasm of the other classmates. And all of the dishes were delicious!
One of the best bits about the project is that Alicia sells bags with the ingredients for the recipes measured out for just 75p each. This means attendees can build on their skills at home – our resident cooked a chickpea curry and rice later and was so proud she sent me a picture of her tasty dish! She’s attended further lessons and is making lots more food and friends in the process.
The Bags of Taste team also source basic cooking utensils and sell them on at a very reasonable price. Attendees are encouraged to volunteer at future workshops, giving them some work experience and helping them to build connections in their community.
Do you know of any great initiatives in your local community like Bags of Taste? Leave a comment below to share them.
Find out more about our Food Sense campaign and food poverty.
Published on Guiness Trust magazine on November 2015.
Featured in Hackney Today 13/4/15
PressInside Hackney
PressWe were delighted to be prominently featured in the 2015 Hackney Guide, Inside Hackney
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Featured on Eat Hackney
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20 January 2015
Bags of Taste cooking classes
The night before each class, Alicia, co-director Lisa Neidich and a team of volunteers bag up the food so that each student has all the ingredients to replicate the recipes again at home. In the classroom, Alicia demonstrates how to make the dishes, and then the students cook in pairs at the beautifully organised work stations, each pair assisted by a sympathetic Bags of Taste volunteer. At the end of the class, the students buy the bags of food – vegetables, fish and sachets of oils and spices – for £3. From this they can concoct two healthy meals for two people.
This is the antithesis of the school of cooking that dictates that fancy ingredients are essential. But the food is packed with flavour – the ginger fish is light but tangy, and sesame oil gives the beans a Chinese twist. “I hate green beans,” says student Ingrid, eating the meal she has cooked at the end of the class, “but
these are great. This is more vegetables than I’d usually eat in a WEEK.” The students are clearly responding to the practical but imaginative take on budget cooking favoured by Bags of Taste: one has already gone on to teach cooking classes to the group herself, and all report that they are saving money as well as cooking and eating much more healthily. Three cheers to Bags of Taste from Eat Hackney! And here’s how to make your own super-affordable ginger fish and stir-fried beans and Turkish guvech.