Tom Kerridge defends visiting food bank for series after criticism
Last year, it was announced that Tom and England footballer Marcus Rashford had launched a campaign called Full Time: Get Cooking With Marcus And Tom, offering recipe ideas to people from low-income families to help combat food poverty and promote healthy eating.
Tutorials are posted on Instagram, with recent recipes including flatbread pizza, tuna salad and leek and potato pie.
On Twitter, Tom was on the defence when someone pointed out that he had visited a local food bank ‘filming a cook on a budget programme’.
‘Perhaps well intentioned but hugely patronising. People know how to cook. They don’t have the money to buy or cook food and it is not by accident but deliberate government policy,’ the Twitter user wrote.
In response, Tom – who is a Michelin-starred chef – urged people to read more about his Full Time Meals campaign ‘before criticising’.
‘Perhaps check out the Full Time Meals campaign that has been running for over a year on Facebook and Instagram,’ the 48-year-old said.
‘It might help you understand before criticising. Always helps to know facts before piling in.’
In a second tweet, Tom said that he agreed with the person who tweeted him ‘on the complete disregard and non understanding of the situation by this current leadership’.
In response to the chef’s follow-up, one person suggested that ‘perhaps this part of your message isn’t being heard enough’.
‘The disregard and non understanding isn’t confined to the current leadership, a big mistake to think that,’ someone else remarked.
In addition to his footballing success, Marcus has gained renown over the past couple of years for his incredible work calling for free school meals to be extended for disadvantaged children.
When announcing the launch of the Full Time campaign, the footballer explained that ‘sometimes a lot of people are afraid of mistakes [in the kitchen], so if a lot of kids engage with it then it will be a lot of fun’.
Tom added: ‘I don’t care what level anyone is – just get in the kitchen and have some fun, it’ll all be fine and you’ll have something tasty to eat – what I can say is Joe Wicks is on the same page as me concerning pineapple and pizza.’
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