Although the Streets to Kitchen project’s main aim is to equip St. Mungo’s clients with the skills and knowledge they’ll need to make a living in a professional kitchen, acting on feedback from clients, the course leaders have decided to put more emphasis on budget-conscious recipes. Whilst still picking up essential kitchen skills, this gives clients the opportunity to recreate meals in the home with few, simple ingredients and minimal kit.

Recipes now include costings, and in each class participants discuss how best to use up leftover ingredients to get more from their purchases and reduce waste. For example, one June session saw clients learning to make kedgeree, then using the leftover mackerel to make a simple paté.

Recipes in June included tuna pasta bake, broccoli with garlic and chillies, spinache and chickpea curry and Eve’s pudding. Though clients acknowledged that they would be unlikely to bake at home, they were in favour of including a sweet treat at every session, as it felt like a luxury and a comfort to cook at eat.

June’s sessions brought with them some encouraging comments from the classes’ participants, including:

“I feel better than I did this morning, because I’m here. Being here has improved my headspace”

“I’m really glad I learned to make these cookies, I’ve never attempted anything like this before”
(this client has since made a batch of cookies at home!)

“I cooked the chickpea curry from last week but I’ve also been experimenting with other things, like I put chicken in it. And I’ve used some aubergines and asparagus.”

“It’s a long process to get back on track but this has been invaluable.”

“I’ve lost all my confidence but I can be in charge of cooking the rice, and it’s a privilege to share my culture with you.”

“God bless you for coming to do this. I love cooking.”