As a social enterprise, Bain-Marie shares a similar mission to its parent company Goldfinger Factory. Both social enterprises incorporate the same central philosophy into everything we do: our goal is to empower deprived communities to ‘turn waste into gold’. The Goldfinger Factory does this by selling furniture that has been made out of discarded wood, or by rejuvenating and up-cycling old furniture.
We channel this no waste philosophy into our approach to food. Both businesses are based in Golborne’s Trellick Tower, and it is here that Bain-Marie hosted a series of Eat The Rainbow cookery classes to inspire young families to cook together and eat together. The classes were free of cost and placed an emphasis on making healthy food fun and delicious, reducing food waste and making ingredients go that little bit further. This not only saves money, but also has a very positive environmental impact.
‘Eat The Rainbow’ is an increasingly popular concept; doctors and nutritionists are advocating a diet incorporating fruits and vegetables of all colours- the old cry to “eat your greens” is still relevant, but only if you eat your reds, purples and oranges too. This colourful way of approaching healthy eating is a wonderful way to educate children about nutrition, and our series of classes aimed to encourage and educate both parents and children about how to eat balanced, varied, healthy, frugal and environmentally friendly meals. The classes taught families how to use spiralisers, and families who attended more than one class were given a free spiraliser. Teaching children and parents how to use spiralisers and then providing them with one equipped them with the skills and tools to create wonderful, vegetable-based, cheaper alternatives to pasta and noodles, which are low in nutrition.
In the first class of the series families learnt how to make Courgetti with their spiralisers, and how to make pesto from leftover greens. We also taught the kids how to make a delicious chocolate cake from avocado, which was a hit all around. In their second class, the families spiralised sweet potatoes and made an Asian-inspired Sweet Potato Yaki Udon, which delighted everyone.
By providing the families with two very different spiraliser recipes, Bain-Marie ensured that they would have the skills to go away and create their own recipes and alternatives using their own spiralisers at home. The kids really loved learning to make Banana ‘nice-cream’ a frozen ice-cream made from ripe bananas. And the mums were so surprised how simple this was and how much the kids loved it. This delicious dessert recipe helps reduce food waste, as it is a fantastic way to use up a lingering overripe banana and is a wonderful base to add other fresh and frozen fruit to make strawberry or raspberry ice cream for example.
In the final class, the families were taught how easy it is to make your own almond milk at home. Here there really was no waste; the families were taught how to use the leftover pulp from making almond milk to create cakes from this wonderful and nutritious almond pulp, in this case we showed them how to make Beetroot and Chocolate Fondants, which the kids and mums alike absolutely adored.
The Eat The Rainbow series was oversubscribed and the vast majority of families attended enough sessions to receive a free spiraliser. We equipped young families from one of London’s most underprivileged areas with the skills and equipment to make delicious, healthy, and environmentally friendly food together.
To book Bain-Marie to do an "Eat The Rainbow" demo in your kids' schools, please send an email to marie@bainmariefood.com.