more often. It’s better for you, it tastes better and once you start, it’s really enjoyable.
“Of course people have a little less time again now but hopefully these last few months have had a positive impact on people and they will see the value in creating delicious food and sharing it with their families.
“There is no great mystery to cooking and lots of food is just a reinvention of the wheel but I always say I’d rather have a simple bacon sandwich cooked well than a fillet steak cooked badly.”
As if motivating the nation to get cooking again wasn’t enough, Sarah, who has previously worked in the property industry, has also been busy renovating an annex at her home into a two bedroom holiday let. Completed to the highest specification, the beautiful cottage, just outside the charming village of Bourton, sleep six people and as an added bonus, guests can request Sarah prepare a private dinner party for them and will even offer them a foodie provenance tour of the region, showing them the area’s culinary highlights.
“When lockdown happened, all these things I’d been working on came to an abrupt halt and I got to thinking what I could do instead.
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“One of the good things I could see happening quite quickly was people were coming together through food.
“Eating together as a family is really important and suddenly it seemed we had time to do that again but lots of people just don’t have the skills to create delicious meals from scratch any more. It’s almost a forgotten art for some families.”
Sarah came up with the idea of a Facebook group and after messaging some of her fellow MasterChef contestants, they launched Let’s Get the Nation Cooking Again.
It now has over 5,500 members and ordinary home cooks, alongside the previous MasterChef contestants, share their tried and test recipes with tantalising images of their finished dishes. People also ask for advice and recipe suggestions for specific ingredients and dietary requirements.
“We have had the most lovely feedback from those in the group. Everyone is really friendly and helpful and people have really enjoyed sharing their cookery with others.
“We have one lady who is in her 80s and she just bakes all of the time and it’s lovely to see her recipes being passed on to new generations. Sadly some of these family traditions have been lost over time and this has enabled them to be revived.”
So as lockdown eases, is the group going to continue?
“Oh yes I hope so, it’s not just about lockdown - that just facilitated it. I genuinely wanted to encourage people to cook from scratch
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
To join the Facebook group visit Let’s Get The Nation Cooking Again and if you are interested in staying at Sarah’s charming holiday cottage Sherbourne Lodge, visit
www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/44374389
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