Midway into my meeting with Karen Mattison and Robinne Collie, the founders of social enterprise Cook for Good, we spend half an hour discussing how to make chicken soup. A whole section of their new recipe book, called Soup for Good, is devoted to chicken soups. And the first of these is, of course, the traditional Jewish version.
“Obviously doing the Jewish chicken soup recipe caused the most debate, because everyone believes theirs is the best,” says Mattison with a smile. “It's like, ‘What do you mean, do it in the oven?’” Collie adds, “Tomato, or no tomato? Dill, or no dill?” When the photo for the soup was styled with dill in the frame, they were so averse to the concept of using the herb as an ingredient that they insisted on the image being reshot. But Mattison is quick to point out there are versions other than Jewish penicillin in the book: a Thai chicken noodle and “Our Italian Wedding Soup”, featuring orzo pasta and chicken meatballs.
“We decided that every culture's got a chicken soup,” she says, highlighting the egalitarian attitude that’s key to how this enterprise works. Comfort kitchen: soup is always on the menu at the Kings Cross project Set up in an abandoned laundry building on a housing estate in Kings Cross three years ago, Cook for Good is a community surplus food pantry that also helps to prevent social isolation and offers free cooking classes, community meals, training and work experience. People with membership pay £3.
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