A BRADFORD woman has been taking part in a Jaime Oliver-backed scheme to encourage people to cook.

Danielle Chamberlain, from The Gateway Centre, has encouraged 15 people from the district to take part in her cookery programme.

She is one of a number of community cooks across Yorkshire who have been teaching people to cook healthy, balanced and affordable meals as part of Tesco’s Community Cookery School, in partnership with Jamie Oliver and food redistribution charity FareShare.

The second phase of the Community Cookery School was launched earlier this year to help train community cooks in delivering helpful and practical cooking skills to families in their communities.

Easy recipes like veggie chilli, tinned salmon fishcakes with veggie slaw, and veggie soup with eggy muffins encouraged the addition of more vegetables into everyday scratch meals.

Because of pandemic restrictions, the virtual lessons were streamed online from February to May, with the lessons developed and delivered by Jamie Oliver-trained community cooks and nutritionists.

The courses covered knife skills and basic nutrition, as well as offering recipes that can be adapted to complement a wide variety of foods typically donated to food banks.

Danielle said: “I loved every minute of the course. It took me out of my comfort zone, let me experience new things and get to know lot of new people.

“The recipes were amazing and so simple and easy to do, helping me look at all my previous dishes in a new eye and think about how to make them healthier for the community.

“I look forward to putting everything I have learnt into my Kitchen job – thank you so much to Jamie and the team.”

The cookery school initiative launched in 2019 with the aim of training 1,000 community cooks how to make meals with food typically donated by Tesco, while avoiding food waste – a target which was achieved by January 2020.

Katherine Hale, Food Education Manager at Jamie Oliver Group, said: “This year’s programme is focused on the importance of cooking balanced meals from scratch by offering ideas and recipes to increase the use of fruit and veg in everyday meals.

“We’re thrilled to have been able to reach so many community cooks digitally this year, despite the challenges we’ve all faced this year.”

Tesco’s Community Cookery School is part of the retailer’s ongoing commitment to health. To find out more: https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2021/tesco-makes-ambitious-new-commitments-to-support-healthy-sustainable-diets/