UK duchess Meghan backs cookbook to help project set up after deadly London fire

LONDON: Meghan Markle, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, has lent her backing to a new charity cookbook to help funds for a community cooking project set up in the wake of London’s Grenfell Tower fire disaster in which killed 71 people.

The Hubb Community Project was created last summer by women seeking somewhere to cook fresh food for their families and friends following the blaze which engulfed the 24-storey social housing block in west London.

The new book, “Together: Our Community Cookbook”, a collection of 50 recipes from the diverse users of the communal kitchen at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, will be used to allow the project to expand and open for up to seven days a week.

“I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together,” Meghan, who first visited the kitchen in January and has made other private visits since, wrote in a foreword.

“Melding cultural identities under a shared roof, it creates a space to feel a sense of normalcy – in its simplest form, the universal need to connect, nurture, and commune through food, through crisis or joy – something we can all relate to.”

Meghan’s support for the project is her first solo venture since becoming a member of Britain’s royal family after marrying Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Prince Harry in May.