Elbow deep in carrots, peppers and beetroot, and stirring pots of soup, the Duchess of Sussex got to work on Wednesday bringing comfort and assistance to those who lost everything in the Grenfell Tower fire. The Duchess made a return visit to the kitchen in west London which inspired a charity cookbook, endorsed by the Duchess, in aid of the fire’s victims. For nearly an hour, she helped volunteers at the Hubb Community Kitchen after saying that she wanted to see for herself what progress had been made since the book, Together, went on sale in September. It features more than 50 recipes from women whose community was devastated by the fire, which claimed the lives of 72 people. Healthy sales of the book, which the Duchess has previously described as a “labour of love”, have paid for a complete makeover of the kitchen as well as funding longer opening hours. The Duchess has been making private visits to the kitchen since January Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images The Duchess, who is 17 weeks pregnant with her first child, also introduced her friend Clare Smyth, the Northern Irish chef, to the volunteers. Cradling her bump and sipping ginger tea as she listened to some of the women’s plans for the future, the Duchess said: “I’m so proud of you. It’s really exciting.” She was keen to join in the work herself, taking off her burgundy Club Monaco coat, rolling up the sleeves of her dress and putting on an apron and a pair of gloves so she could get cooking. In total, more than 200 meals were prepared today for delivery to local groups, including elderly people’s homes, homeless shelters and women’s refuges, with mouth-watering dishes such as Egyptian lamb fattah, Persian chicken and barberry rice on the menu. Sales of the book have paid for a complete makeover of the kitchen Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images It emerged that the Duchess has been making private visits to the kitchen since January and is understood to have been left deeply moved by the dedication and hard work of those involved. Ahlam Saeid, 61, whose Iraqi family’s recipe of rainbow roasted vegetables Meghan helped prepare, said: “I told her this [baby] is our grandchild, we are so happy. The whole community. And she is so happy.” The Duchess was also given a traditional Ugandan cloth to wrap around her stomach after giving birth. Munira Mahmud, who presented her with the navy blue fabric, said: “Much of what we are doing is based on tradition. I thought what could be better to get her than the wrap. She was over the moon, she was really happy.” More than 200 meals were prepared for delivery to local groups, including elderly people’s homes, homeless shelters and women’s refuges Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Ms Mahmud, a mother-of-two, is one of the women motivated by the success of the kitchen project to start up a new scheme, providing new mothers with fresh and nutritious meals. She said: “I told her ‘I can’t wait to cook for you after you have the baby’.” She added that Meghan told her she would be happy to enjoy her meals. Other projects, launched with the backing of the social entrepreneur foundation UnLtd, include a group for women who have suffered domestic violence. The Duchess embraces one woman outside The Hubb Community Kitchen in north Kensington Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage The book Together: Our Community Cookbook has sold nearly 40,000 copies in the UK alone, raising £210,000. The kitchen was redesigned with the input of the volunteers “to capture its spirit as a place for the community to come together over a meal” and is now open seven days a week, up from just two when it began last year. The Grenfell disaster, which left 223 people homeless, was the worst UK residential fire since the Second World War. A public inquiry is currently under way to examine the causes of the blaze, what contributed to it spreading so quickly and whether more could have been done to prevent loss of life.
