We have gathered together a team of Cracking Cooks, people who have a passion for cooking that they want to share with others. Our Cracking Cooks range from experienced restaurant chefs to self-taught individuals who just love talking food and cooking it. Their love of food and skills in cooking has inspired all those who have taken part in cooking sessions this year, and there have been many indeed! Always straight forward and friendly, they create a buzz and social energy that we defy anyone to not want to replicate at home. The sessions are always really social. You not only learn about cooking but come away having met new people too!
Avril Povah
Avril has cooked predominantly with community groups for more than 20 years. She is also a Tutor at South Trafford College running the Cook4life course in partnership with Trafford PCT and the Change4life programme supporting families around obesity. She cooks just about everything but is particularly interested in healthy breakfasts, quick lunch ideas, snacks for lunch boxes and traditional family meals. http://nutrimens.shutterfly.com
Beth Creedon
Beth is our in house trainer, she has helped train all of our Cracking Cooks. She owns Dig, Manchester’s organic veg box scheme with her husband Alan, see www.digfood.co.uk. Beth’s background is in Unicorn and MERCI, where she ran Herbie the mobile veg van that supplied fresh veg to locals in Oldham. She has also been acclaimed for her Wild Food Foraging food cooking banquets at Electrik and Battery Park for the public and organised the Chorlton Food & Drink Festival for several years as well as recently running the sustainable meat cooking session for us.
Fernanda Alvarez
Fernanda co-runs the successful Deli at Unicorn and has rolled out her very popular Mexican Tapas course 4 times now, due to very strong public demand. Having being brought up in Mexico, she cooked with her mother from the age of 12. Her specialist knowledge is vast and her sessions are always very appreciated by all.
Jay Hickson
Jay is one of the founder members of the very successful Hickson & Black’s Deli on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton. As a food enthusiast and specialist in cheeses, cured and fresh meat products, Jay has brought knowledge and plenty of anecdotes to our cooking sessions. Jay has cooked at the mens’ bail hostel in Nell Lane Estate and with Rob on the Sustainable fish course. You can also book and pay for cooking sessions from our public programme by dropping in to Hickson & Blacks, www.hicksonandblacks.co.uk.
Jesper Launder
Jesper qualified in Herbal Medicine in 2002 from the University of Central Lancashire and has since set up clinics in Didsbury, Bolton, Manchester City centre, and his home town of Hebden Bridge. Jesper is well-respected and has gained a reputation as a skilled and effective Herbalist. Over his time in clinical practice Jesper has developed a particular interest in the treatment of long-standing and stubborn complaints, with special emphasis placed upon stress-related disorders, skin complaints, and problems associated with hormonal disturbances.
Jesper is our ‘honorary cook’, who runs all of our very popular foraging sessions. In those sessions he goes foraging in the Chorlton Waterpark or Fletcher Moss in Didsbury and wraps it up with some wild food cooking and tasting. www.jesperlaunder.com
Juliet Lawson
Juliet started off as a volunteer, became a Co-ordinator and a Cooking Leader and is now a Director of Cracking Good Food. Juliet has cooked with plenty of community groups through the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, with a Stockport primary school and at many of our community events such as NACRO, Buckthorn House, Nell Lane, and Chorlton Good Neighbours, as well as at festivals.
Kate Mulhall
Kate has cooked with Jam St. Café and is a former pastry chef at Harvey Nichols. She has re-run her very inspiring and successful Something Spicy course, which includes fabulous thai curry, spicy beanburgers and an unusual romesco sauce made with stale bread.
Kath Taylor
Kath co-runs the Deli at Unicorn Grocery and spent her formative food years at On the Eight Day. As a vegetarian from childhood, she taught herself how to cook to avoid eating the bland food that she was given! She has cooked an Indian banquet with the residents of Nell Lane Estate, cooked pizzas at the Lost Plot, salads in Bite’s allotment and run two very popular fish and vegetarian curry sessions at Chorlton High School. She is keen to cook more with the homeless and people living on very little money, as she’s a passionate advocate that cooking good food doesn’t have to be expensive when you know how.
Kim Irwin
Kim ran one of our first Cooks on the Hops so successfully that we knew the concept was going to work. With a background at On the Eight Day and Unicorn Grocery, she now runs Food by Kim, a successful food business based at Islington Mill, Salford. She also does a lot of independent food catering at festivals. She has cooked with us at a primary school in Stockport and has made cakes & risottos at Chorlton High School and now runs the regular 6 week cooking programmes at the Angel Centre in Salford, which form part of the GPs social prescribing scheme. A truly inspirational cook. To watch Kim in action click here.
Lawrence Beedle
Renowned for his food column and experimentation with food, Lorenzo (as he’s known), just loves talking food! http://grocerskitchen.wordpress.com. Very popular with the Chorlton Good Neighbours group, who love his anecdotes, Lawrence has also run a very successful Tofu & Tempeh session at Chorlton High.
Nicola Scott
Nicola was a researcher into GM crops and ethical consumer issues about food and is a founder member of Abundance Manchester. Food is certainly at the heart of Nicola’s life. She has cooked with Bite, a mental health organisation and NACRO who work with homeless people, substance mis-users and ex offenders. She is also a growing practitioner who works with Glebelands City Growers, Sale and other schools. http://abundancemanchester.wordpress.com
Richard Redman
Richard works at Unicorn and spent almost 10 years at On the Eight Day. As a keen cook for many years, he has brought his calm and approachable charm to our cooking sessions. Having cooked some incredible pizzas with the residents of Nell Lane Estate as well as Mousakka at Chorlton High School, we hope that he can spare more of his time to deliver yet more great cooking with us.
Rob Tomlinson
Rob was trained as a cook almost 30 years ago and has been a passionate Cracking Cook and Non Executive Director of Cracking Good Food from the start. He has run several very successful Sustainable Fish sessions and numerous breadmaking courses that will become a staple in our programme to come. He has also cooked at the Big Green Festival and at Chorlton Good Neighbours who have requested his return. His energy and knowledge is inspiring.
Steve Black
Steve is the co-founder of Hickson & Black’s, the successful Deli on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton. As a fellow food enthusiast and specialist in cheeses, cured and fresh meat products he has brought knowledge and plenty of anecdotes to our cooking sessions. He cooked pasta at St. Ninians Church hall and introduced Chorlton Good Neighbours to Moules Mariniere, which went down a storm!
Alison Maudsley
Alison’s a keen amateur cook who loves hearty stews, seafood & baking. She was the lead cook at our recent low carbon cooking programme at the Didsbury Sure Start centre and went down a storm. She’s a confident cook and her bubbly enthusiasm for cooking good food is proving to be very infectious with community groups.
Deanna Thomas
Deanna set up North Star Deli, is a food critic, runs a food blog, outside catering business and can pretty much turn her hand to anything.
Dr Elizabeth Wells
Elizabeth (DNN, MFNTP) is a fully-qualified and licensed nutritionist and is a member of the Federation for Nutritional Therapy Practitioners. She has specialist interests in auto-immune illnesses such as ME and Candidiasis, and is actively researching the links between these and more obscure modern conditions such as electrosensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Elizabeth is an experienced writer, and has a PhD in English Literature. She has published articles on health and lifestyle for various publications including Allergy magazine, Your Healthy Living and the NHS. http://www.naturallywells.com
Graeme Borland
As a student who lived off take-aways, he’s now seen the light and spends his spare time wallowing in the joys of making stocks and just about everything else to perfection. He’s cooked a lot for the homeless and done some cheffing work too. We’re looking forward to making contact with students who can hopefully see the light through his eyes too.
Harjinder Kaur
Harjinder has been cooking Punjabi food for over 40 years now, ‘Challenges’ is her middle name and her prowess in the kitchen and her deep commitment to cooking traditional Punjabi food led her to contribute the BBC TV Series ‘Hairy Bikers’ Mum Knows Best’ in January 2010 where she showcased her skills in front of the nation. As a result of her Punjabi treats, eight of her recipes have been included in the Hairy Bikers’ cookbook – ‘Mum Knows Best’! The TV Times review says she’s “A one woman cooking machine!”.
She has also taken part in ‘Britain’s Best Dish’ for which she created ‘Curried Black Pudding’ as a tribute to her Northern roots in England and India.
Harjinder has opened Manchester’s first Punjabi cookery teaching establishment where she gives bespoke teaching in her kitchen and at clients’ kitchens one -to -one and has recently taught the Punjabi culinary arts to Savoy trained chefs . She also had a write up in the MEN last year and is a personal chef for dinner parties as well as cooking demos in schools. She was also asked to judge the 2010 ‘Student Masterchef’ Competition at Manchester Metropolitan University. A keen writer, her account of a journey to India won first prize in the 2002 Commonwealth Games Literary competition.
She was the lead cook for Cracking Good Food at last year’s Big Green Festival and her meat and veggie Punjabi sessions at Chorlton High are extremely popular. http://harjinderskitchen.com
Ian Mackenzie
Ian is a member of the Parsnip Collective www.theparsnipship.co.uk who promotes good wholesome vegetarian food, often gluten free and largely vegan. His mission in life is to veganise most of his recipes.
Jackie Kearney
Jackie Kearney is a top 4 finalist in BBC One’s MasterChef 2011. She is now developing her experience and reputation with pop-up dining events, as a private chef and working with a number of highly regarded chefs in the UK. Her food passion lies with vegetarian dining and Asian street food, inspired by her extensive travels across Asia with her husband and twin children. You can read more about Jackie’s adventures with her family on her Asia travel blog. Jackie’s ambition is to raise the bar in vegetarian and street food dining. She aims to bring something to the table that is exciting, delicious and thought provoking. Jackie’s Website
Laura Pask
Laura is an experienced chef with years of catering experience too. She is looking forward to getting stuck in to Cracking Good Food and being with like-minded kindred spirits.
Nicola Shuttleworth
Nicola is an experienced chef and has worked with a number of well known Manchester restaurants, notably Bistro 156 in West Didsbury, more recently also volunteering with Emerge helping to run cooking demos with a range of community groups in the public arena and in food markets. Loves all kinds of cooking, especially baking and seasonal cooking.
Wendy Swetnam
Wendy is currently the head chef at Detox Retox on Mossley Street in Manchester and has previously cooked with On the Eight Day. Very experienced in just about everything that is veggy.
And we’ve still another 9 waiting to be trained up, when we’ve time to fit it in!
Have a look at our gallery of images to see our cracking cooks in action.
If you would like to become a Cracking Cook, email your cooking CV to us with a covering note explaining your particular cooking passions and any experience in community cooking to jobs@crackinggoodfood.org or telephone 0845 652 2572. Alternatively, fill in the form below.
