After 20 years as chairman of the Cooks’ Charity Committee Paul Herbage looks back at the history of giving within the Company through the lease of the recent and distant past.
We in the Cooks, one of the City of London’s smallest livery companies, can be proud of our charitable support, particularly for the hospitality industry and young people seeking careers there.
Historically, as with most of the medieval guilds, sons of freemen and liverymen would be apprenticed into the Cooks. By the 19 th Century the Company ceased to have many professional cooks amongst its membership. Urged on by a general awareness among many Liveries of the need to be seen supporting charitable endeavour the Company started to supported initiatives to teach catering skills and support charitable causes identified by the City.
It was not, however, until the late 1960s that the Company’s attention was focused on establishing a separate charitable fund from which grants could be made, largely because of the efforts of late Past Master Michael Kenyon. Early on, grants were small but as these grew more ambitious plans were developed. In 1994 the Company agreed to a bid from Bournemouth University towards a new centre for culinary research which it continued to support for over ten years. In 1997 a significant grant was made to Hackney Community College towards refitting a kitchen to help students with disabilities and learning difficulties receive basic kitchen skills. Support for the Hackney Campus of New City College continues with regular funds that assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds being equipped with personal knives and whites for their catering courses.
In 2000 the Company began to support the Adopt a School Programme operated by the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. Meeting much of the cost of employing a chef trainer continues to be one of the charity’s largest payments.
Despite some fluctuation in the amount of money trustees have agreed in any year, the Charity Committee has recommended a total payout of more than £200,000 a year to projects covering the full spectrum of ages. These have included primary school children through the Chefs’ Adopt a School scheme, secondary pupils through Springboard’s Future Chef competition (where the Company is the second largest sponsor), college students at Hackney, young adults through our own Apprenticeship Programme operated for us by Westminster Kingsway College, the rehabilitation of offenders through The Clink and post graduate Food Policy research at City University.
Today many of us are also active in promoting the craft of cookery through involvement in organising and judging competitions and teaching and mentoring those embarking upon careers within hospitality. And this year the Charity’s trustees took the unprecedented step of creating a specific fund to assist those worst affected by the impact of the current pandemic.
The legacy of this more focused charitable support can be seen in a number of ways – the number of primary school children who first experienced food preparation through a RACA session, former Future Chef finalists who are now in the industry, and young chefs who have graduated from Hackney or Westminster Kingsway. One lasting initiative that came out our the Company’s Centre for Culinary Research at Bournemouth has been the International Conferences of Culinary Arts & Sciences which have been held approximately every two years since 1996 in Egypt, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, Norway, Denmark and the US. At these gatherings the latest peer reviewed research across a range of culinary, dietetic and food policy topics have been shared, spreading the name of the Cooks’ Company worldwide.
We also support the funding of part of the dietetic service at Treloars, the college in Hampshire that helps young people with multiple disabilities and Crisis whose kitchen in the East End enables some of society’s most disadvantaged get back on their feet.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have been involved in the work of the Cooks Charity for some 27 years and as the Committee’s Chair for the past 20.
Arguably it was the best time to have been involved as we were able to build on the foresight of previous members and use the income from the fund to help so many projects in different ways. The need is out there, and this is likely to increase as the world adjusts to a post Covid environment and I would urge any Liveryman or Freeman who doesn’t already do so to make a regular donation. You can rest assured that the Trustees supported by their advisory members will make sure it is well spent.
Having relinquished involvement in the Cook’s Charity allows more time for my new role as the Company’s honorary almoner. I am always keen to know about any member of the Company who may have been unwell, in hospital or perhaps is just having a bit of a difficult time. Do feel free to contact me on pherbage@btinternet.com or through the Clerk.
