Meghan: I feel so connected here, this is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together...

WITHIN minutes of arriving at a community kitchen set up after Grenfell, Meghan Markle was in an apron, washing rice, making chapatis and chatting about recipes.

That visit in January was the first of many to the Hubb Community Kitchen, which is helping the families affected by the disaster in west London.

Mum-of-two Zahira Ghaswala, 38, said: “She just got stuck in straight away. The next minute I realised there was an apron put on her and she was washing rice.

“It was just all natural – the joy, the happiness.”

Zahira said Meghan, 37, was “fascinated with all the flavours, the cultures and the dishes” and suggested producing a cookbook to raise funds so the kitchen can run seven-days-a-week.

And with The Royal Foundation, Meghan is supporting Together: Our Community Cookbook, which has 50 recipes from Europe, the Middle East north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

The food photography was done at a kitchen in Kensington Palace and Meghan wrote the foreword. In it, she writes: “I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together. Melding cultural identities under a shared roof, it creates a space to feel a sense of normalcy.” After the tower block fire that killed 72 people in June last year, women gathered at a communal kitchen at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in west London to prepare food for families, friends and neighbours. Cooking together, they began to “connect, heal and look forward” and the Hubb was born. Meghan has visited several times. Zahira said: “She’s got stuck with helping, preparing, serving, making chapatis. She fits in really well. “She thrives in the group, she inspires the group. “It just feels very supportive, very real.” Natalie Campbell, of The Royal Foundation, said the role of the women in the community kitchen could expand. She said: “They have started to say, ‘I want to go out to feed the elderly, do workshops for mums, support children to learn to create healthy food’.” The book is published on Thursday, priced £9.99.