Food Week at The Ferry Project Cookery School was a deliciously fun week with at least one cookery session on each day for the clients. We cook every week but with a new month (June) and with a keen group of clients we decided to really explore our food passions. We had talked in previous sessions about food, ingredients and different food cultures. We began with Strawberry Shortbread and Strawberry Milkshakes for an English style afternoon tea in our Bake! Well club. Wednesday morning saw a delicious plate of meatballs, with Greek Gyros in the afternoon. Thursday afternoon we gathered around the table to make bread dough and built our own pizzas, which we cooked off outdoors in the wood fired oven and were joined by other clients who came to join our communal pizza eating! On Friday we went to China and made a Chicken Chow Mein. The next session we enjoyed baking Bacon and Cheese twists, with the end of the week culminating on Sunday with a buffet brunch to include the full works. We all came together to cook off bacon, sausages, black pudding, eggs, potatoes, mushrooms with other clients joining us to eat.

Clients said that they “really enjoyed cooking together and eating around the table together”. “It was great to try new recipes to cook and to eat”. “It was really good to be able to pick herbs from the patch and use fresh in the food”.  

Recipes are picked and written to engage the clients, we discuss what we would like to make and eat. Recipes are then developed to use different skills and competencies such as pastry making, bread making, knife use, rice handling, vegetable prep. Nutrition is considered to ensure a balance with vegetables always incorporated. We use everyday ingredients, some of which come in as donations, to ensure clients are confident in handling commodities and combining different ingredients to produce nutritionally balanced meals.

We are planning so much more, as I write this we are mid Jambalaya production and tomorrow we are cooking up Moussaka for a takeaway pop up!