It started with a batch of chocolate brownies” says East Finchley-based home caterer and cookery teacher, Fabienne Viner-Luzzato. She is just one of the chefs, caterers and event planners who immediately started preparing nourishing meals for NHS workers and the vulnerable, when the hospitality industry as we knew it, ground to a halt.
“I’d been speaking to a local friend, Susie Gabbie — a paediatric doctor at the Royal Free Hospital. She’s amazing — so calm and unflappable on the (thankfully) few occasions she’s seen my children in A&E. But during the early part of the crisis, when we spoke, I could hear her tone changing as the numbers started to rise. I wanted to give back, to help them, so I asked if I could send her home-baked brownies for her team.”
Over the next couple of weeks she sent more of the gooey, chocolate treats. “I was also preparing food for the paramedics stationed at Waterloo. Then a gentleman asked if I could make meals for his nephew, also a paramedic. He had raised money for me to buy ingredients.”
So she started making bigger batches, and now delivers to doctors, nurses and paramedics three or four times a week. The quantities were growing, so she asked friend and fellow kosher caterer, Julie Mimouni to help. On the evening I spoke to her, the pair were separately preparing breakfast for 40 to be delivered to the Whittington Hospital at 7am, to feed the outgoing nightshift and incoming dayshift.
The pair had cooked brioches; pancakes; fruit bread; chocolate bread; frittata filled with potato, spinach and cheddar and yoghurt topped with fruit compote and granola. Viner-Luzzato and husband, Paul Viner, were going to deliver it.
Later that day, she would be serving lunch for 20 doctors at Charing Cross hospital ferried there by another doctor friend, a heart specialist, who, like many medics, has been assisting with Coronavirus patients.
On a bigger scale, 24 year old Dan Stern (pictured (left) in top photo) has been leading a team of chefs and packers in the kitchens of Mill Hill school. Stern was four days into a new job as Senior Technician working on events at The Dorchester Hotel when he found himself furloughed. He is a coeliac and, thinking there would be a need for gluten-free treats for medics and the vulnerable, he and girlfriend, Tash Berg, a music teacher at JCOSS, started to bake.
He was connected by a friend to charity Facebook group, You Donate…We Deliver (YDWD) and took some of his bakes there. “They needed drivers and I started the next day. I was blown away by what they were doing and knew I had to do more. They said they needed more kitchens.”
Stern, who lives in Mill Hill, managed to secure the use of the kitchens at Mill Hill School. “I went to see the headmistress and she was happy to let us use them.” He invited friend, Charlie D’Lima (a chef furloughed from his job in Cornwall at Michelin-starred restaurant, Paul Ainsworth) to lead the kitchen. D’Lima (pictured right in top photo) brought in a couple of chefs to help them and Stern gathered a team to pack the food — all in compliance with health and safety and social distancing rules. The team are producing a minimum of 500 meals a day for NHS hospitals, together with 400 – 500 meals cooked by home cooks based in Mill Hill and Hampstead Garden Suburb who act as hubs for donors for the YDWD charity.
Both Stern and D’Lima had personal reasons for wanting to support the NHS. “I broke the entire left hand side of my body in a motorbike accident in 2015, and had 11 surgeries in four years. The medical staff were unbelievable! I wanted to say thank you to them.”
Their meals go to seven hospitals in Hertfordshire and London, including Great Ormond Street. D’Lima’s family already support the hospital through charity, Jack’s Goal, named for Charlie’s brother who died of a brain tumour in 2005 aged ten.
Meals are high quality, with boeuf bourguignon; Thai curries; brownie with crème Anglaise; sticky toffee pudding are just some of the dishes on the menu. “Charlie said he works in a Michelin starred restaurant so he’s going to serve restaurant quality food.”
Caterer, Adam Nathan, has also been sending out high quality meals. The caterer — who uses kosher meat — had to think fast when the simcha market came to an abrupt halt. “I had just done a big barmitzvah on March 16, when it became clear that we’d have trouble with any more group gatherings.”
He switched to delivering takeaway meals, but also wanted to give back. “It’s about doing the right thing as a human being.” He spoke to an old school friend — a doctor at The National Hospital in Queen’s Square — and offered to deliver food to him and his colleagues. “I drop 100 meals there once a week. The ingredients and his chefs’ time are paid for by crowd-funding — I offer my clients the chance to pay an extra £10 when they buy their meals and have so far raised about £3,500.”
In addition to that, he sends a further 20 meals to YDWD and does a weekly run to the cemetery in Cheshunt, having heard that the staff are so busy, they did not have time to go out for food. He stresses he’s not doing it for praise but because “it’s what anyone would do”.
Simone Krieger was in isolation when lockdown happened. “The minute I could get out, I rushed to the wholesaler and picked up whatever ingredients I could find. I made beef and barley stew and put a notice up on Facebook offering it to whoever needed.”
Someone tagged Sarah Laster, one of the founders of YDWD. When Krieger delivered the meals — on her 50th birthday — she found out about their operation, and wanted to help. Since then she been cooking 300 meals a week. Her meals go to them for hospital distribution as well as to a couple of council-owned bed and breakfasts housing homeless people and asylum seekers.
“I really didn’t know where I was going when I started this but I now deliver to them several times a week. How could I not do it? I’m enjoying the camaraderie of this. I really feel that my skills can make a difference.”
Support YDWD at: virginmoneygiving.com/fund/YouDonate/WeDeliver
Contact: Fabienne Viner-Luzzato via Instagram: fabienne_viner_luzzato
