Chefs at Home
In early 2020 the UK went into a Covid induced lockdown that threw the hospitality industry into disarray and turmoil. Mark Lewis, the CEO of Hospitality Action approached Jon Croft, long established as the premier Publisher of chef’s cookery books, to discuss the possibility of publishing a book of chef’s Lockdown home recipes. All royalties would go to Hospitality Action.
After some initial editorial discussions about direction and content, Chefs at Home was conceived and an intense and speed driven schedule was put in place to publish a book to raise much needed revenue for the charity in order to meet the demands of distressed hospitality industry staff.
50 leading UK chefs were asked to provide two lockdown recipes that they had enjoyed cooking over their time at home. With contributions from chefs such as Tom Kerridge, Calum Franklin, Jamie Oliver, Angela Hartnett, Atul Kochhar, Gordon Ramsay, Clare Smyth and Marcus Wareing, a remarkable range of wonderful recipes were sent in ready for testing and editing by a leading team of publishing professionals.
Food photographer Kris Kirkham gave his time for free to shoot the recipes, whilst David Loftus, another world famous food photographer famed for his work with Jamie Oliver, supplied witty and charming illustrations for free.
An inspiring and selfless team effort from all involved helped produce a wonderful finished product that proved an instant success. On first publication Chefs at Home appeared at No 8 in the bestseller charts and has since gone on to reprint six times.
Sales have resulted in tens of thousand of pounds of income for Hospitality Action to help support their fight to relieve poverty and distress in the industry.
