Skip to main content

A key part of Edinburgh Food Social’s mission is to bring members of the community and local organisations together to strengthen the area’s community spirit. Often, this involves our social enterprise collaborating with other organisations, reaching people who don’t usually attend our cooking classes, workshops or food experiences. 

One such collaboration was kickstarted last autumn when two people, Ashley and Caroline, attended one of Edinburgh Food Social’s cooking classes. They knew after attending this session that they needed to run similar classes at Bingham Church, where they both work.

The classes

The plan was simple: arrange weekly cooking classes in the church’s hall and open them to everyone in the local area. Our chef-activists decided to keep the focus of this six-week program relatively simple. Aside from ensuring everyone who attended would have the basic knowledge necessary to cook healthy, wholesome food at home, this approach also meant that no one would feel out of their depth during the classes.

A woman looking at food cooking in a frying pan.

All members were very keen to learn.

The classes included plenty of time for participants to ask questions. While many of these focused on practical topics (how long to cook certain foods, for example), others were more philosophical such as how can you stay motivated to cook something from scratch?

One of the key ways to stay motivated is to vary what you cook. With this in mind, our chef-activists made sure each class was different to the last. One of the ways they did this was varying what protein the class cooked, covering everything from chicken to steak to fish over the weeks. These proteins proved a big hit. One participant said, ‘This is the best fish I’ve ever eaten.’

Developing a host of practical skills

Aside from motivating people to cook, Edinburgh Food Social’s cookery classes are also designed to educate people about how to reduce food waste. For this reason, our chef-activists taught those in attendance how to pickle and preserve various foods. This involved them making both homemade pickles and a number of chutneys.

A chef doing a cooking demonstration.

Many cooking techniques were covered over the course of the project.

The participants also used the new knife skills they’d learnt to make fresh and zingy green sauces using wild garlic as well as white sauces. (If you’d like to learn how to make delicious sauces like these, consider signing up for our new Get Saucy cooking class). These delicious sauces were a revelation for some participants. One said, ‘I’ve only ever made white sauce from a packet.’ Suffice to say, the homemade version was both far tastier and far healthier. 

Importantly, participants felt confident enough to use what they’d learnt to produce high-quality, wholesome food at home. Said one participant, ‘I cooked that roast chicken recipe for my kids last week and they loved it.’

A lady cutting out scones using a cookie cutter.

Everyone was happy to get stuck in.

After five weeks of solid learning, it was time for the group to test their new skills. Following a discussion, it was decided that the group would cook food for the church’s monthly community meal, serving shepherd’s pie, salad and sticky toffee pudding. 

Preparing food for the community meal

Meeting at the usual time on Tuesday, the group set about prepping a sofritoa mixture of ingredients, including onions, garlic and tomatoes that feature in a lot of recipes. They browned the meat and made a perfect sauce, bringing a bright flavour to what was quickly becoming a rich and hearty shepherd’s pie. 

Two uncooked shepherd's pies sitting in foil tins.

The shepherd’s pies were a big hit.

To finish off the dish, the participants crafted perfectly smooth mashed potatoes. After prepping the potatoes so that they were of an even size, the participants started the potatoes in cold water before bringing them to the boil and mashing them until creamy and smooth.

Making the sticky toffee pudding involved soaking, chopping and blitzing the dates until they formed a luxurious batter. Participants portioned this batter into individual cupcake molds and baked them. A delicious smell filled the kitchen. After only a few hours, the team prepped heaps of food and got it ready for the community to consume the following night. 

People helping themselves to food at buffet.

Bingham Church members enjoyed the community meal

When reflecting on the programme, we saw so many positive impacts. The participants’ attitude to cooking and eating was clearly improved and it showed in the food they produced. The community meal was attended by well over 30 people, and the food received some rave reviews. This project was seriously successful and we can’t wait to work with the folks from Bingham Church again in the future.

If you would like to help Edinburgh Food Social continue to help people in the community learn new cookery skills, please consider donating to our organisation. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Bluesky to keep up to date with our programs, classes and news.

Leave a Reply

Edinburgh Food Social
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.