Takeover: Jen Goss of Cegin Y Bobl

Help kickstart a Welsh food revolution

Credit: Santino Diano Photography /Cook 24 

From Anna:

This week it's really great to be able to hand over the newsletter to Jen Goss.  I met Jen many years ago at a magical event called The Do Lectures. Jen was cooking for for us for the weekend, hundreds of us. Jen cooked with her whole heart and soul, like she was cooking for a huge family. It is that kind of cooking I get really excited about -generous, supremely tasty, unfussy but enlivening and connecting. Doing everything the best food does, bringing us round a table to marvel and share. 

I knew whoever was in the kitchen was going to be someone I wanted to get to know. Over the years I’ve cooked with Jen and I’ve been so thrilled to see her new project taking shape. It’s called Cegin Y Bobl (The People’s Kitchen), and it’s nothing short of a Welsh food revolution.

The right to cook, eat and know food, is something I believe should be universal to all. Especially kids. Jen and the team working with her at Cegin Y Bobl are working towards this. To me there could not be more important work. Jen will tell you more but if you have the means I implore you to offer them your support, there’s a link to their website below.

As well as this Jen has some amazing recommendations for us this week from a beautiful novel to her an A to Z of pasta.

Thanks Jen for all this, It’s great to have you.

With love, 

Anna x

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Credit: Heather Birnie 

From Jen:

My first word was ‘more’ and I was lucky enough to live in a household where growing, cooking, preserving and eating was central to our lives. Sitting around the table as a family, often with friends, and chatting and sharing. I now understand, this was so important, and we continue that in our family home now.

My parents would experiment with curries and gnocchi when no one else had heard of them, mostly successfully, but not always! Nigel Slater, Elizabeth David and Madhur Jaffrey featured in a big way. I left home to go to university armed with The Madhur Jaffrey Cookbook and a London A to Z. I had been taught how to joint a chicken, amongst other things, and never looked back.

During my twenties in London I worked and managed front of house in hospitality, in then fabulous gastropubs like The Goldbourne and The Wells, before managing Tom’s Deli on Westbourne Grove.

Credit: Richard Beaven

My partner and I moved to Pembrokeshire in 2010 and after a brief year working front of house I stepped into the kitchen. Since then I have cooked for The Do Lectures and other big events, at Bara Menyn sourdough bakery and co-written a couple of cookbooks, Do Preserve and - just out - Do Smoke. These have both been designed to be introductions to these gentle arts.

Santino Diano Photography /Cook 24 

A Welsh Food Revolution

Three years ago, I was invited to work on a government-funded project, Cook 24, teaching people to fast track into hospitality. As this progressed we realised that everyone needs to learn how to cook and know where their food comes from.

With processed food, diabetes and obesity a growing concern, the logical process is surely to teach everyone how to cook? The premise of this project is it is taught by chefs, who are passionate about where food comes from and it tasting great too.

We are now setting up a charity to continue this vital work: Cegin Y Bobl. This will eventually roll out across the whole of Wales, teaching in schools, community centres and more. Having worked over the last three years with children and adults alike, and seen the real difference this can make, this is all I want to do, it’s what we need to do.

We are starting a Welsh food revolution, so please have a look and share, and if you are able to support then every penny means we can make a difference to people’s lives now and in the future.

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Things to read

• Still Life by Sarah Winman – evocative love story that made me want to go and eat

  anywhere in Italy but specifically Florence, which I then did.

• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel – the main character is love lorn and can never marry and expresses her love and sadness through her cooking, powerful.

• The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien – food features heavily, whether the crew is feasting or travelling but its worth a read for the hilarious scene where the whole gang of dwarves descend upon Bilbo Baggins for the first time.

• An A to Z of pasta by Rachel Roddy is a book I refer to regularly, a real gem, Rachel is a wizard with words as much as her fabulous recipes.

• Do Smoke - just out, our book is an essential guide to this culinary skill that adds a new dimension to even the humblest dish. You'll start by smoking vegetables on the hob or your barbecue before being introduced to the basic processes and inventive recipes.

• A New Way to Bake by Phil Khoury – easy, accessible recipes which are all plant

  based but not full of exotic or hard to find ingredients, the Epic Chocolate Fudge

  cake is awesome.

Things to watch, listen to etc.

• The Big Night – this about food as language, and funny too, and the moment when they slice the grand Timpano open is brilliant.

• The Taste of Things – a love story, as much about food as love, an ode to the

  classics. Beautiful and intense.

• Chef’s Table – Asma Khan – owner of Darjeeling Express tells her story of being born a girl in India when her parents wanted a son and her journey to opening a now sellout restaurant in London.