Wild Goose Cafe for the Homeless, Bristol
There was a time when as a BBC Assistant Producer I was working on a long forgotten series as part of a season about post-war Britain.
The programmes were a tribute to Raymond Postgate, founder of the Good Food Guide.
It was a fascinating series to be involved with and required reconstructing some restaurant scenes from the 1940s.
One of these larger reconstructions was at a hotel in Devon using actors from the local am-dram society.
We had to produce enough cooked food to plate up for 20 people to create a dining experience à la 1947 using a menu that consisted of fried Snoek, fried SPAM, Jerusalem artichokes, greens, roly-poly and custard.
Because the food was produced as accurately as possible in the hotel kitchen, everything was fried in lard.
All the food was left at the end of filming. Nobody could stomach a meal from the 1940s.
I’ll never forget heaving 15 black bin bags full of freshly cooked food out into the alley behind the hotel.
I was struck then, as I am now about the waste from food shoots, which is why at Mendip Media, where we specialise in food filming and photography, we’re rigorous about organising where the food goes after filming; either to a food bank, homeless charity or our own homes.
In this time of austerity, it’s vital that we don’t squander either the left over ingredients or the edible dishes we make.
It’s a matter of helping with hunger and this is one close to my heart!
To find out more about how to donate to the homeless get in contact with www.crisis-centre.org.uk/content/wild-goose