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Young carers cook with head chef from Fat Duck restaurant
Published on February 09, 2008
On Wednesday February 6th, the Head Chef, Ashley Palmer Watts, from the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, came to cook with a group of Young Carers involved in a project called “543 Ready Steady Cook” at Cricket Green School. The award winning chef, Heston Blumenthal, on seeing the “Merton Kids Can Cook” recipe book, was so impressed, his Head Chef offered to come to Cricket Green School in Mitcham to give the children a hands on exciting cookery demonstration.
On the day we had 45 people crammed in the Food Tec Room at Cricket Green. Ashley and his sous chef Johnny Lake cooked the most amazing 3 course meal with the 10 children involved. First they cooked squash and basil soup with crиme fraishe, then a delicious pasta dish that we had to remove from one young carer so others could have some!
Finally the children choose what flavour icecream they would like to make in 3 groups and also made the most exquisite (and complex) chocolate mousse.
The most exciting part came when Ashley turned the mixtures into ice cream using liquid nitrogen - it was like being on cloud 9! The children and parents so appreciated the event and being made to feel that they mattered!
543 Ready Steady Cook is a partnership project between Jigsaw4u and Carers Support Merton (CSM). The children involved have parents with mental ill health. They find cooking gives them real release to be creative themselves, as well as enjoying learning to cook healthy meals.
Young carers need "me" time as one young carer put it because often they are spending time at home supporting members of their family. There are 150 young carers registered with the CSM Young Carers Service and projects such as these give them a lifeline. Sadly there are still many young carers out there who have remained unidentified and miss out on support.
When the 543 Ready Steady Cook group of young carers are asked what would most make a difference to their lives, they unaminously say "more cooking projects like this!" They also love visiting chefs! Let us hope they get their wish!
