Coronavirus: James Sommerin will be cooking meals the week of April 20, on behalf of The Staff Canteen

Like most businesses The Staff Canteen has had to change the way it works. Our Networking Lunches usually involve 15 chefs or front of house, going to a great restaurant to have lunch cooked by an equally great chef.

Due to closures and social distancing that can’t happen, but we and our sponsors still wanted to do something so this month we are working with James Sommerin from Michelin-starred Restaurant James Sommerin to offer a Networking Lunch with a difference.

Sponsored by Koppert Cress, Aviko and Chef Works, James will be cooking meals the week of April 20, on behalf of The Staff Canteen, to deliver to the University Hospital of Wales. He will be using products from the sponsors and The Staff Canteen will make a donation towards the lunches.

James started cooking meals for the hospital after the restaurant closed, he said: “We had a fridge full of ingredients and we decided the best thing we could do is try and help the frontline – as a bit of a thank you I suppose.

“There is a massive amount of people there who are needing to be fed.”

In week one James and the team dropped off 3,000 meals he has since joined up Feed The Heath which has so far raised over £35k and is funding the ingredients for the meals. James explained that he has no income, they’ve closed the restaurant and battened down the hatches - they are cooking meals ‘as a charitable cause’ and they are continuing to support their suppliers by ordering ingredients from them.

“We are not doing it to make money,” said James. “I think it’s only right that we are doing something to help.”

James and his family are producing old-school favourites like sticky toffee pudding, rice pudding, banana bread, lasagne and fish pie.

James said: “We’re making proper, well-balanced meals because that is what they need.

“It must be so traumatic, the least we can do is cook them a little bit of food.”

He added: “What’s important is we can all rebuild and start again, not that we want to get to that point, but there are people out there having to work their socks off at the moment and all we are being asked to do is stay at home.

“As any chef will tell you we work 14 to 16 hours a day and we can do an awful lot of good in those 14 to 16 hours, so the more of us who get on the band wagon the better.”

If you would like to get involved in this lunch please call Lyndsay Hall on 07395790028 or email [email protected]

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