Over the last year, while many of us were working from home and doing our best to keep things ticking over, our kitchen team was busy supporting those who needed a little bit of love.

In fact, the team have been so busy, that the Craft Guild of Chefs recently recognised them as Culinary Heroes for the work they did during the pandemic. As part of this, Damian Broom, Ryan Haines and Alan Vass were each awarded with a special badge of recognition, as well as a three-year membership to the Craft Guild of Chefs.

Read on to find out what they’ve been up to.

NHS care packages

In the first of our lockdown community projects, our team in The Dining Room provided 500 freshly prepared meals each week to local NHS key workers. We ran this scheme May and June and provided meals to doctors, nurses and hospital workers who were busy looking after COVID patients.

Free school meals

Throughout October, our team was hard at work providing free school meals to local families. Many of our team have families of their own, so we understand the challenges that can come about during the holidays. We were proud to be able to support the community by providing 250 packages across the week.

Festive cream teas for care homes

After a challenging year, we wanted to give the residents of our nearby care homes a little Christmas present. Working with a team of drop-off volunteers, our chefs delivered festive cream teas to six homes in an effort to keep the residents connected to their community.

To find out more about the Craft Guild of Chefs and their 44 Culinary Heroes, click here.