In this new series, Prue Leith opens the doors to her Cotswold Kitchen, sharing recipes, tips and culinary hacks. Joined by her husband John and a cast of special friends, each episode is a ‘unique culinary adventure’. The series is a celebration of food, friendship and fun – with easy-to-cook recipes for every occasion.
In episode four, Prue is joined in the kitchen by food campaigner and author Henry Dimbleby. As well as showing her how to make a one-pot veggie dish – Black Bean Shakshuka – he discussed the ‘school dinner revolution’ he’s been leading.
The programme also features children in one of the schools benefiting from the scheme, which places chefs who normally work at high-end restaurants in school kitchens instead.
Dimbleby said: “I am very much an accidental campaigner. Because of what we were doing with Leon we were asked by the Government at the time to look at schools. So we did some work on school food which lead to free school meals for all infants, new cookery standards [and] cookery lessons.
“I started Chefs in Schools because the cook at my children’s state primary school left and I was a governor at the time and the head teacher said we were looking for a chef and I tweeted ‘we are looking for a chef’ for this school not thinking I would hear anything about it and this extraordinary woman Nicole Pisani, who was the head chef at Yotam Ottolenghi’s up-market restaurant Nopi, had been wanting to do something with more purpose and she got in touch and said ‘can I do this job’.
“Nicole came and she spent a long time standing by the bins seeing what they were throwing away [and] asking them why. We set up this charity Chefs in Schools and what we do is work with schools to help them if they need to recruit a new chef or train up their teams. [For] Real change you need people who care doing it from the bottom up. That’s what we hope to be part of.”