Revered Manchester chef Simon Wood is helping to feed families in need and on a budget with the launch of his new #FeedingFamiliesFor30 initiative.
The MasterChef champion – who was the winner of the 2015 edition of the cookery competition show – has joined forces with Manchester-based specialist communications agency, Down At The Social, to showcase what £30 worth of food from a supermarket should look like, compared to the free school meal parcels previously provided by the government.
As part of the initiative, the Chadderton-native has also created a series of quick and tasty recipes using dried goods and tinned produce to offer inspiration to families when cooking at home.
The recipes have been incredibly well-received – especially for those who have seen their income cut due to the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic – and the accessible nature of the content has also led to food banks printing and handing them out alongside food parcels.
The Feeding Families With Simon Wood website has officially been launched this week.
The website serves as a central and permanent home for all the recipes, and looks to provide a space where individuals and families can seek inspiration and resources to create quick and easy meals using cupboard essentials.
As you all hopefully know by now I’ve been releasing easy recipes every day to try and help people of all skill levels in the kitchen
With the government now returning to the school meal vouchers instead of pre-prepared food parcels, families can now also access ready-made shopping lists which can be used to create a host of Simon’s recipes.
Inspired by the incredible work of Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford over the past year, Down At The Social and Simon Wood want to provide “real solutions for real people” who want to eat well but on a strict budget, and #FeedingFamiliesFor30 does just that.
It aims to demonstrate what £30 of food really looks like when done properly.
After buying dried goods, tinned produce and essentials from a supermarket of their choice, families are encouraged to taking a picture of their creations and post it on social media and using the dedicated hashtag, before donating the goods to a local food bank.
Speaking on the launch of the new initiative and website, Simon Wood said: “It’s been incredibly heartwarming to see the reception of me posting these recipes on my social channels, with everyone getting stuck in and recreating them at home [and] knowing that food banks are now offering them out alongside food parcels is something I’m really proud of.
“We just wanted to provide a solution to families and individuals who have limited resources, but [still] want to eat well [and] launching this website means we can extend the reach and allow more people access to quick and easy recipes using just basic, cost effective ingredients.
“What Marcus Rashford has started has been incredible and now we must all do our part to ensure that vulnerable children across the country do not go without.”
You can find more information and access Simon Wood’s recipes on the new Feeding Families With Simon Wood website here.
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Emily Sergeant -
19th January 2021 
