Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Chef loves catering to masses online
Amateur cooks log on for lessons
A Coat bridge chef is tackling the challenges of lockdown by cooking up a storm with hugely popular online classes.
Joe Fagan owns his own catering company, Be Different Catering, and like everyone in the hospitality sector, his business has taken a huge hit throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
But the 58-year-old dad-of-two, who says “cooking is his life”, remains committed to his passion project and his creativity in the kitchen has attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers to his online cooking sessions.
Joe, who was born in Coatbridge and now lives in Blackwood, where his business is based, told the Advertiser: “I started the cooking school online a couple of months ago and it has grown arms and legs.
“I don’t charge for the lessons as I’m just doing it for the cooking community and I’m glad people enjoy it ; hopefully they will come back when all of this [Covid-19 pandemic] is over.
“We run the classes on Facebook Live every Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm and anyone can click on the site.
“Each sessions lasts about 20 minutes as I like to do quick recipes as people can get fed up being taken through something that lasts hours. I try to do something different every week using things people can get their hands on easily from places like Aldi and Lidl.
“The reaction has been brilliant and mind-blowing. We are averaging around 100,000 views per week.
“People leave nice comments too and I ask them what they would like me to make.
“It’s a great feeling to hear that they are trying out the recipes, and loving it, as cooking is my life.”
Joe has worked in the food industry since leaving school – and his passion for food is clear to see. He said:
“I became a butcher after school, until I was 22, then worked in a food factory, where I ended up becoming the manager.
“I always wanted to be a chef so I went to South Lanarkshire College to get my degree and then started up my own catering company.
“I really love watching people eating and enjoying food; there’s nothing like it in the world.”
Lockdown has created many challenges for frustrated Joe who, like many other business owners across Monklands, faces an uncertain future due to Covid- 19. He explained: “Lockdown has been absolutely horrendous.
“We were supposed to do a wedding a couple of weeks ago, and had one booked for Halloween, but both have been cancelled. We also provide catering for bowling clubs, churches and chapels, but that business is stone dead at the moment.
“I get people in to help when we do weddings but I do all of the cooking myself and we offer fine dining where we go to people’s homes.
“We’ve got some business out of the online classes as we do afternoon teas and I have been able to show people how to make cakes.
“We also supply meat packs which I learned from my time as a butcher.
“They are both getting good responses from people, although business is nothing like what it was before Covid-19.
“I just hope things can return to some kind of normality soon, even if it’s just being able to cater for events like weddings.”
Visit https://www.facebook.com/bedifferentcatering to view Joe’s online cooking sessions and find out more about Be Different Catering.
I do something different every week using things people can get their hands on easily