Noa helps launch The Big Lunch

A North Cardiff woman is among those preparing to share her favourite recipe for this year's The Big Lunch.

With the help of celebrity chefs including Ainsley Harriott and Dame Prue Leith, The Big Lunch is seeking to unearth hidden culinary gems and the stories behind them.

Noa Man from Llandaff North is preparing to submit her entry and is encouraging other people to share their favourite recipes too.

Noa Man at a previous The Big Lunch

The recipe search is an idea from the people behind the annual celebration for neighbourhoods and communities, which takes place on 7 and 8 June. It’s been launched in response to new YouGov research revealing that Brits love to cook but are in need of inspiration.

The new data reports that almost one in seven of all UK adults (14%) never cook a completely new recipe, with around a quarter (24%) admitting that a lack of ideas discourages them from cooking from scratch.

The national survey found that, while four in ten UK adults (40%) report they’re more likely to cook meals from scratch compared to five years ago, many of us hold back from trying new dishes.

Entrants are encouraged to enter their go-to dishes, quirky childhood favourites and top crowd-pleasers along with the stories behind them at TheBigLunch.com.

Noa plans to share her pesto recipe, featuring basil grown at a Cardiff project she helps to champion. Noa spends several days a week at Cardiff Salad Garden, a social enterprise in Bute Park providing vital access to green vegetables as well as opportunities to develop horticultural skills and enjoy some social connection.

The project is based around a greenhouse and polytunnel in the park, where Noa supports people, often from isolated communities, to spend time outdoors tending to the plants, boosting their wellbeing as a result.

Noa said: ”Here at Cardiff Salad Garden, we grow basil that’s absolutely packed with flavour – it makes the most delicious pesto! I prepare this pesto every year for our Big Lunch and use it to make a crowd-pleasing pasta dish. I’d love to see more people preparing this simple but delicious meal – especially if they have homegrown basil to hand!”

Big Lunch Ambassador, Dame Prue Leith said: “The Big Lunch Recipe Search is more than just a way of finding and rewarding the people behind the UK’s best home recipes. It is an invitation to people everywhere to join in with The Big Lunch and share food and friendship together. It is a chance to celebrate the recipes that we love sharing with others and the special role that food plays in strengthening relationships, celebrating who we are, our passions, culture and traditions and that sense of belonging where we live.”

Long-time Big Lunch supporter, Ainsley Harriott MBE, said: “It’s all about hunting down hidden culinary gems. Recipes that hold a special place in people's hearts... and stomachs. We want to hear about food that brings people together and is great for sharing. Throughout my life I've been so influenced by my mother’s cooking and I still make some of her recipes today."

Home cooks who submit the recipes are in with a chance to have their recipe featured in a Big Lunch online cookbook and shared at thousands of Big Lunch events up and down the UK this June.

The Big Lunch is an idea from the Eden Project made possible with support from the Pears Foundation and partners Co-op and Greene King. It’s the UK’s annual celebration for neighbours and the biggest community-led fundraiser, bringing millions of people together in a nationwide act of friendship in June every year since 2009. Her Majesty The Queen has been patron since 2013. 

To find out more and share your favourite recipes go to www.thebiglunch.com