Non-alcoholic drinks brand, Real from The Real Brewing Company, is launching Real Chefs; a collaborative series of online cooking tutorials from top UK chefs, in aid of raising funds for the hospitality industry.
Live from 1 April, Real Chefs will offer viewers the option of donating through the Real website either directly to each chef, their restaurant or charity Hospitality Action.
Real is working with chefs of some of the UK’s best restaurants where their sparkling fermented teas are already stocked, and who all share in their collective desire to provide useful and timely content for their audiences.
The campaign hopes to gain momentum through social media as Real and the chefs spread the word through their own social channels in order to galvanise as many donations as possible.
Names involved in the initiative so far include Mark Hix, Andrew Clarke (St Leonards / Brunswick House), Steve Groves (Roux at Parliament Square), Martin Frickel (Mathildes), Athul Kochhar, Tobyn Excell of Sael Projects, Laurence Henry (Master Chef Winner 2019), Tom Peters (Tom Simmons / Roux at Parliament Square), Kirk Haworth (Plates), Richard Fox and Tess and Elliot Lidstone (BoxE Bristol), with more to come.
Healthy and nutritious, the recipes use easily accessible or foraged ingredients to ensure viewers are able to replicate the dishes at home with limited access to supermarket produce, such as Tobyn Excell’s Cauliflower, brown crab and ramsons and Tom Peters Portobello katsu curry with coconut rice, pickled cucumber and fennel. The recipes also include tips and tricks such as knife skills from the professional chefs.
The dishes will be paired with one of Real’s non-alcoholic drinks, for those looking to cut down on alcohol. Each chef is a friend of Real and has contributed to the project in the hope of bringing simple cooking solutions, and to highlight the work of Hospitality Action, that is diligently working to support those who have found themselves in times of hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Viewers are invited to watch the videos and donate to their chosen chefs online at realkombucha.co.uk/real-chefs/.
As a pioneering brand which set out to help diversify the UK’s food and drink scene, Real Chefs is now looking to work with the community to support the hospitality industry, which in the UK employs 3.2 million people, and where 1 million of those lost their jobs in March 2020.
Whilst the government has stepped in to support restaurants and employees, many will struggle to reopen or reemploy staff in the unprecedented and unpredictable times ahead.
Mark Lewis, CEO of Hospitality Action, said, “The outbreak of Covid-19 triggered seismic change in the hospitality industry with many thousands of workers, many on low incomes, experiencing a sudden and total loss of income.
'Many hospitality workers who have lost all or much of their income, are tenants and don’t have the means to pay rents or feed their families while waiting for benefits claims to be processed.
'At Hospitality Action we’re coordinating an industry-wide appeal and every penny donated to our appeal will go towards helping hospitality workers and their families avoid destitution.
'We can’t help everybody, and our fund isn’t a long term solution, but we hope it’ll provide a degree of protection for some workers while they apply for government help. In our 183-year history UK hospitality has never faced a challenge like this during peace time and it’s vital that anybody who can, acts to support us now.”
