Making a difference

SWAPPING CONSOLES FOR COOKBOOKS Meet the 12-year-old chef who’s tackling food poverty

Confined to our homes in lockdown, many of us saw an opportunity to try new things – baking sourdough, kneading dough for cinnamon buns, mastering homemade ‘takeaways’ – and 12-year-old Alfred Moisan from Kent (pictured) decided to write his own cookbook in just six months. In Conversation With… features funny anecdotes from chefs and winemakers from all over the world, as well as some of their fondest recipes. It’s since been featured in the top 30 cookbooks on Amazon, and raised close to £1,000 for the charity Fareshare, tackling poverty and food waste.

Alfred explains how he first had the idea. ‘I started cooking basic things from the age of seven, mostly from books and magazines. My parents kept complaining that I was spending too much time on my Xbox during lockdown, so I thought I could combine my passion for cooking with raising money for charity by writing a book. I followed the free school meal campaign of footballer Marcus Rashford – he’s a Fareshare ambassador, which made me realise that lots of people in the UK don’t have enough to eat every day. I emailed hundreds of different chefs to explain my project and 70 replied, which was amazing, because I know they were worried at the time as their businesses were closed.’

‘I really enjoyed Virgilio Martínez’s answers. He’s an amazing Peruvian chef who runs Central restaurant in Lima, which was voted the best restaurant in South America. He travels to the Amazon jungle to find rare ingredients, which he uses in his dishes. He told me that he once cooked a salt-crusted fish, but when it was served to a customer, they realised they’d forgotten the fish, so it was just salt. Even the best chefs in the world make mistakes!’

As if that wasn’t enough, Alfred also won the Primary School Category in Kent's Young Cooks competition with a duck breast recipe. ‘It took weeks and weeks of practice at home – my family was bored of eating the same dish all the time. On the day, we had an hour and a half to cook for the judges, who were previous Masterchef and Great British Bake Off contestants.’ MV