Feeding The Frontline Heroes

Coronavirus forced him to leave his dream job in London, but chef Richard Henderson has commandeered a Plymouth kitchen to make meals for the city’s paramedics, discovers Catherine Courtenay

- Catherine Courtenay

Being a chef means hard work and long hours; it’s a notoriously demanding and all-consuming job. So what happens when you suddenly stop?

Since February, Valentine’s Day to be precise, Richard Henderson had been working in London for Tom Aikens at his new restaurant in Belgravia, Muse.

Richard, 26, describes it as “an amazing place” and he was buzzing with the work that consumed his every waking hour, long into the night.

But when lockdown kicked in, he found himself back at home in Devon, with nothing to do.

“It took about a month to adjust to the idea that I wasn’t working. I couldn’t sleep, I wasn’t using any energy and was staying up until 3 or 4am,” he says.

Going on walks with his parents, they’d discuss things he could do, and it was his mum, Debby, who initially found out about Food4Heroes. By raising funds and then teaming up with caterers and restaurants, the charity provides healthy, nutritious and great tasting meals for NHS frontline staff across the country.

Richard loved the idea and volunteered to set up a group in Plymouth. It wasn’t easy finding a kitchen, but help came from one of his former teachers, chef lecturer Richard Farleigh, who helped him set up at City College Plymouth.

From mid-May Richard was able to start cooking 60 meals a day for ambulance staff based at Derriford.

He appealed for chefs to join him and volunteers have spent varying amounts of time helping out. Some are well-known chefs, such as Peter Gorton, who Richard knew from early in his training, and Jake Westlake from Moorland Garden Hotel, and Richard Farleigh joined in too.