News from Community Chef

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Together with the Real Bread Campaign, Community Chef – Good Food for All will be hosting a public event celebrating the revival of real bread and the steady rise in community food projects which are creating a more sustainable and ethical food system for us all.

Be inspired by our motivational speakers, entertained by our frontline films and uplifted by lovely live music.

Take part in our participatory appraisal and sow your idea in our vision nursery

Meet chefs, bakers, growers, food producers and activists.

An opportunity for people to share great food, good ideas and bold visions

Date: 9th November 2011

Venue: Lewes Town Hall

Time: 7pm – 9pm

Suggested donation: £5

For more information about the upcoming event contact Robin

To book go to: http://bakingcommunities.eventbrite.com/

A hands-on course where you’ll learn how to make real bread and why. This two day intensive is led by Andrew Whitley, of the famous Village Bakery. You will make a range of hand crafted breads from flour to loaf. Complete beginners will receive a sound introduction, while professionals and experienced bakers can improve their range and understand of the architecture of good bread. We will cover the five crucial stages of proper bread making – mixing, fermenting, shaping, proving and baking – by way of basic yeasted and sourdough breads. Then we move on to other recipes, each demonstrating a different and delicious way of using the fermentation process.

You will take home a delicious assortment of your own bread and a better understanding of the processes involved. There will be plenty of time for general questions plus a special session looking at how to start a community bakery to share real bread in your neighborhood.

Places are limited to 12 and early booking is strongly advised.

Date: 9 - 10 November 2011

Venue: Lewes

Time: 9 - 5

Price: £395 or £295 concession

Download the booking form

For booking enquiries contact robin@communitychef.org.uk

For information about Andrew Whitley go to: www.breadmatters.com

We have set up the Lewes Bread Club and our aim is to get people making and sharing real bread which is better for us, our communities and the planet.

The bread club is open to novice bread makers and enthusiasts alike. We are being supported by Plumpton Mill and use their locally grown wheat and rye flours.

We have successfully run our first programme of workshops and our Autunm and Winter series are now confirmed:

For more information about the upcoming workshops go to the events page or contact Robin

Community Chef now has a regular recipe feature in Juno.

This wonderful magazine promotes and champions a natural and compassionate approach to childrearing and families.

Click here for my latest article and recipes

www.junomagazine.com

Community Chef is now running Power of Flour workshops in partnership with "Plumpton Mill" a fully restored working water mill nestled into the foothills of the Sussex Downs. Together with Paul and Carole Nicholson, Robin has been running introductory and now advanced breadbaking, dough and wheat craft days in this spectacular location. For more information about upcoming workshops go to the events page or contact Robin

Community Chef was recently interviewed by Scoff,  the Spectator Magazine’s quarterly food and drink supplement.

Download the Spectator article

Community Chef will be running further training courses in Lewes, East Sussex in 2011

Next courses: 

6 & 7 Dec 2011 -Newhaven

25 & 26 Jan 2012 - Lewes

For more informtion or to book a place contact robin@communitychef.org.uk

Cookery Leader Training - Lewes March 2011

Another cracking training course at Lewes Town Hall, in the shadow of Thomas Paine's quote "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" We talked, cooked, eat and planned a host of community cookery projects, including "Bread Therapy" for Chichester Carers,  "Mega Munchies" for the youth of Eastbourne and "Just Eat It" lunch club for a Littlehampton Housing association

Cookery Leader Training - Lewes Feb 2011

It was cold outside and warm within as ten passionate cookery leaders got stuck into two days of training, communal cooking, baking and project planning. Our leaders have planned a host of community food activities including allotment based cookery classes in Newhaven, 543 - five meals 4 £3 sessions in Battle and Hastings, Food and Mood classes in Brighton, Make and Take sessions for Elders in Chatham

Cookery Leader and Community Food Training - Earthship, Brighton

In partnership with Brighton Permaculture Trust we ran training at the fantastic Earthship which is situated in Stanmer park. This training was open to a wider audiance and in addition to support with running cookery innitiatives, participants worked together to plan a range of local and international food related projects and social enterprises. More are planned for 2011.

Cookery Leader Training  - Lewes

Using a newly designed format, 12 community workers, local heroes,  transition town activists, teachers and family workers spent two high energy days in the elegant kitchen of the Lewes Town Hall. The two days of communual cooking, networking and planning have resulted in a wealth of local food, cookery and community activities and events. We will be using this format again and running further training courses in Lewes this winter.

Cookery Leaders - Lewes, July 2010

Cookery Leader Training - Eastbourne

Staff from Eastbourne Children's Centres competed cookery leader training in Oct 2009 and will be running cook and eat sessions for parents and children and cookery classes for other community members. For information contact: Annalisa Banks at annalisa.banks@eastsussex.gov.uk

Eastbourne Cookery Leaders - Pat, Annalisa, Donna, Claire, Caz and Marcos

Cookery Leader Training  - Hastings

Children and family workers from Hastings Chlidren's Centre, East Sussex County Council and the Excelence Cluster have finished the first stage of their training and will be running various intergeneration and family focussed classe around Hastings. For information contact: Teresa at teresaf_exc@yahoo.co.uk

Hastings Cookery Leaders - Chris, Liz, Linda and Rebecca

Cookery Leader Training - Hastings

Volunteers from Hastings Children's Centres are currently being supported by Community Chef. They will be running family cookery classes from Robsack Wood Children's Centre later in the year. For more information about these courses contact Anne on 01424 460112 anne.harrington-lowe@eastsussex.gov.uk

Celia, Ceri and Da preparing pizza dough

Cookery Leader Training - Eastbourne and Peacehaven

Youth Workers from the Archery Centre in Eastbourne and the JOFF Centre in Peacehaven are currently being supported by Community Chef. They have incorporated healthy cookery sessions into all of the regular youth club session they run. For more information contact Sally Dean on 01323 646591 or sally.dean@eastsussex.gov.uk

Helen and Cathy from Archery Youth Centre preparing fish burgers during there cookery leader training

Cook and Eat Surrey 

In partnership with NHS Surrey, Community Chef has trained over 70 cookery leaders from across Surrey to go forth and run healthy cookery sessions in there communities. We will be running further training courses in 2011, for more information about Cook and Eat Surrey contact Julie Nelson, Public Health Dietitian, on 01372 201 626. To find out about future training courses contact 01372 201739 or email surreyjointtraining@surreypct.nhs.uk

Cookery Leaders - Woking May 2011

Cookery Leaders - Ashford Jan 2011

Cookery Leaders - Camberly October 2011

Cookery Leaders - Merstham, Sep 2010

Cookery Leaders - Sunbury Youth Centre, July 2010

Cookery Leaders - Sunbury Youth Centre, December 09

Cookery Leaders - Horley, Nov 2009

Cookery Leaders attending training at Parkview Community Centre, Woking, Oct 09 

Cookery leaders attending training at Sunbury Children's centre July 2009

 Cookery leaders attending training at Burstow Community Centre, June 2009

Cookery leaders attending training at Guildford Children's Centre, Jan 2009

West Sussex Cook and Eat Programme

Community Chef works in partnership with West Sussex PCT  and Cookery Champions to train and support community workers in running cook and eat sessions and other interventions which improve the cookery skills and nutrition of the people they support. We will be running training courses across West Sussex in 2010. For more information contact:

cookerychampions@btinternet.com

Cookery Leaders - Worthing, Dec 2009

Cookery Leaders - Worthing, Sep 09

Cookery leaders attending training in Littlehampton

Community Chef provides intensive support for community projects, schools or special units, providing a range of support which helps the community to more fully plan, develop and deliver community food and cookery projects.

The Corner House Project

Community chef has been intensively supporting The Corner House, Mental Health Resource Centre in Southwick. In May, we ran a Healing with Wholefoods 3 day intensive cookery course for staff, combined with Cookery Leader Training. We will also be helping The Corner House to develop a whole food co-op for people who use the centre and supporting the development of a wholefood ready meal social enterprise. Community Chef will also be running Nourish Cookery and Wellbeing sessions for service users.   For more information about the Corner House contact them on 01273 871575

Alice, Nic and Barbara preparing Normandy apple tart

Hailsham East Community Centre
Community Chef has worked regularily with Hailsham East Community Centre and Town Farm Residents Association helping them to develop a community cafe, deliver family cookery classes, stage youth and community events, fundraise and promote community allotments.   

Dawn and Jim from Town Farm Residence Association getting to grips with a Spanish Omelette

Community Chef is part of the Fresh Ideas Network which aims to encourage and support the development of a vibrant, strong and effective network for community food initiatives across the south east region. It is also funded by the Big Lottery Chances 4 Change programme.

Fresh Ideas Co-ordinator Chiara Vagnarelli says: “We want to build up our links with other organisations working on food issues and those actively engaged in working with communities to develop food projects that benefit and involve local people. Our project is here to provide a range of networking support and opportunities across the south east region, including, a web site, networking events, and training and learning activities and resources, online and via workshops."

For more information, contact Chiara on 01273 431710 or chiara@commoncause.org.uk.

A new source of funding began for the Community Chef this April. In partnership with Action in rural Sussex, the project has received funding from the Big Lottery Fund and is part of the Chances4Change portfolio. The 3 year fund is for work across East and West Sussex and focuses on improving people’s cookery skills by training and supporting community workers in setting up and running cookery groups, after school cookery clubs and other community based food initiatives. As well as delivering Cookery Leader Training, Robin will continue to run Cooking for Life classes, workshops and public cookery demonstrations, and will also be piloting a holistic wellbeing programme called Nourish.  For more information contact Robin