Our Basildon

Four cafes and snack bars in Basildon will be giving away free food this weekend, attracting more people into sampling their healthier, tasty options. The nutritious alternatives have been designed with the help of British Masterchef Mark Baumann, as part of the pilot ‘Our Basildon Our Food’ scheme, to serve up healthier options at half price until the end of February.

All participating eateries took part in a cookery master class to develop a new dish for each of their menus in November, before introducing the recipes for a three-month period. The Our Basildon Our Food scheme is funded by NHS South West Essex and served up by the ‘Our Basildon’ team at the Foundation for Essex Arts.

Organiser Lisa Hawker explained: “This project is proving a great success, , but we still want to get as many people to try these really tasty ‘Our Basildon’ options before the end of February when the introductory offers end. “When we launched the scheme the eateries gave away 1,500 tasters between them so we hope to attract similar interest this weekend.”

Thousands of vouchers have been delivered to homes in Basildon encouraging people to try the healthier alternatives at half price; all subsidised by the local eateries taking part. This innovative new programme with the emphasis on taste is to encourage people to eat more healthily in response to concerns about high levels of obesity and other health problems. Lisa explains “According to local statistics, one in four adults are obese, which can lead to problems such as heart attacks, diabetes, strokes and mental health issues

“This is one of several schemes happening locally and we are aiming to work in partnership with various organisations, including the NHS. We want to raise awareness that healthy eating can be about colour, texture and taste -  that it can really ‘tickle tastebuds’. ”We want to encourage people to get into cooking so all five recipes in our pilot are downloadable on the website or can be sent to anyone requesting them.”

On Friday 12 February between 4pm and 6pm, free samples of ‘Mac’s Ocean Pie’ and ‘Fin-tastic Fish Cakes’ will be given away by the team at Stacy’s Pie Shop, and Chip and Fin respectively at Stacy’s Corner, Long Riding.

Saturday 13 February from 11am to 1pm, a second free tasting event will see samples of ‘Chicken d’Lite’ and ‘Fin-tastic Fish Cakes’ offered at Cafe Market Restaurant, Market Walk, and Chip and Fin by Basildon Bus Station – both in Basildon town centre. Half price vouchers for all participating eateries - subsidised by the eateries - will also be given away over the weekend to anyone trying the free tasters.

A competition is open to anyone purchasing the Our Basildon Tasty Options in each of the cafes where there is a chance to win a meal for two at Baumann’s Brasserie in Coggeshall. The other restaurants, cafes and snack bars taking part in the Our Food scheme are Pitsea Leisure Centre Coffee Shop, Poolside Cafe at Gloucester Park Swimming Pool, Café City in the Basildon Garden and Mower Centre, Tasty Bakes & More in East Walk, McDowell’s Pie and Mash in Southernhay.

For more information on the Our Basildon project and the Heritage Trail - along which five of the eateries are based - please see www.ourbasildon.org. To download recipes go to www.ourbasildon.org/ourfood or post a request to Our Basildon, Foundation for Essex Arts Ltd, PO Box 9807, Billericay CM12 9XJ.

Ends

Notes to journalists: For further information, please contact: Lisa Hawker: Our Basildon Our Food 07889 278756

‘Delicious’, ‘Tasty’, ‘A great idea’.

These were just some of the comments made at a public tasting to launch the Our Basildon Our Food initiative, aimed at encouraging local people to eat more healthily.

Around 1,500 portions of food were served in just two hours as Saturday shoppers clamoured to try out healthy options which are now being sold in nine of the town’s restaurants and cafés.

The chefs involved in the scheme joined forces to show off their new dishes at the tasting event organised by the ‘Our Basildon’ team at the Foundation for Essex Arts.

Among the tasters passing by was a governor of Basildon Hospital, Patricia Ayres, who tried out the spicy chicken quesadillas on offer from the Market Café and Café City. She praised the scheme, saying: “It’s a really good way for people to become aware that healthy food can be very tasty and nutritious, and not fattening.”

Matthew Robarts tried both the quesadillas and the homemade tomato and basil soup. He said: “It’s really fantastic, the soup tastes really good and I really like the spicy quesadilla pancakes.”

The food outlets are offering the healthy meals at half price through an introductory offer that is being sent to thousands of local residents during the promotional period. It will run until the end of February when it will be evaluated by researchers from the University of Essex. The aim of the scheme is to encourage people to eat more healthily in an effort to cut the high levels of obesity in the town.

The other restaurants taking part include McDowell’s Pie and Mash Restaurant, Stacey’s Pie Shop, Tasty Bakes and More, Chip and Fin in the town centre and Long Riding, the Poolside Café at Gloucester Park swimming pool and Pitsea Leisure Centre Coffee Shop.

Organiser Lisa Hawker, from the Foundation for Essex Arts, said: “It was a magnificent start to the scheme, far surpassing our expectations. So many people came to try out the healthy options and the reaction was really positive.

“We now want to encourage those who receive leaflets over the coming days to use their vouchers to visit the participating restaurants and take up the half price discount on the healthier/tasty Our Basildon choice on the menu. If people miss the vouchers, most of these dishes are still subject to various in-house promotions plus there’s a chance to win a great prize with every ‘Tasty Basildon’ option purchased.”

Joining the chefs for the grand launch was Masterchef of Great Britain Mark Baumann, who runs Baumanns Brasserie in Coggeshall. Alongside a nutritionist he helped each of the restaurants devise their new dishes, which include homemade tomato and basil soup, curried fishcakes, a chicken and vegetable jacket potato filling, plus a fish and vegetable pie.

NHS South West Essex is supporting the project to address the complex issues of unhealthy eating. Healthy eating is not only about the cost of healthy food but about behaviours, lifestyle, knowledge and the choices available.

For more information on the Our Basildon project and the Heritage Trail, please see www.ourbasildon.org.

Our Basildon, Our Food is supported by NHS South West Essex, which is working to have a long term impact on healthy eating. The Our Basildon, Our Food project is designed to embed the skills and knowledge to prepare healthy meals into the community by offering training with British Masterchef Mark Baumann on how to create healthy meals, alongside nutritional advice, within the budget of businesses.

The nine businesses involved are subsidising the healthy eating options. The vouchers have no monetary value and are simply a device to encourage residents to explore the options available. The voucher can only be used on the healthy option meals, which have been developed with a nutritionist.

Photo 1 shows Patricia Ayres and Matthew Robarts trying out the healthy dishes.

Photo 2 - group photo of all those taking part in the scheme

Some of Basildon’s most popular restaurants and cafés are combining their culinary skills to persuade local residents to eat more healthily.

As part of a mouth-watering new project entitled ‘Our Basildon Our Food’, the eateries will be promoting healthy options on their menus, adding a tasty, nutritious dish created with the help of food experts.

Nine venues will be sending chefs to attend a healthy-eating cookery course with British Masterchef Mark Baumann from Baumanns Brasserie in Coggeshall, and will receive guidance from nutritional therapist Deborah Colson from the renowned Institute for Optimum Nutrition.

Five of the restaurants are on the Basildon Heritage Trail: McDowell’s Pie and Mash Restaurant, Tasty Bakes and More, Chip and Fin, the Poolside Café at Gloucester Park swimming pool, and the Café Market Restaurant. The other four are Pitsea Leisure Centre Coffee Shop, Chip and Fin in Long Riding, Stacy’s Pie Shop and Café City in the Basildon Garden and Mower Centre.

The project has been funded by NHS South West Essex and delivered by the Our Basildon team at the Foundation for Essex Arts Ltd in response to concerns about high levels of obesity and health problems in the town.

Our Basildon Our Food project organiser Lisa Hawker explained: “We want to create a ‘Tastier Basildon’ to make local residents more aware of the impact that a bad diet has on their health and we are doing this by promoting healthy food which is nutritious and tasty.

“By involving restaurants and cafés along the Basildon Heritage Trail, we are also encouraging people to walk and exercise in the process, persuading them to adopt a healthier lifestyle.”

According to the NHS health profile of Basildon, one adult in four is obese and the number of adults and children who are physically active is way below the national average.

Dr Neel Bhaduri, Public Health Commissioning Manager at NHS South West Essex, said: “Obesity can cause a variety of health problems from diabetes and certain cancers to an increased risk of heart disease and premature death. It also has serious economic costs, not just to the NHS but to business through increased sickness levels and absenteeism.

“By raising awareness in the community about the impact that food has on people’s health, we hope to change people’s attitudes to healthy eating and combat the notion that ‘It’s not for me’.”

Nutritionist Deborah Colson added: “We are what we eat and if you are well nourished, not only will you experience better physical health, you are also likely to reduce the risk of mental illness such as dementia and depression as you get older. Good quality nutritious food means your body and mind can carry out the regular maintenance needed to ensure you age into a classic vintage model, not an old banger!”

A second project running alongside this entitled Our Basildon Our Memories is aimed at encouraging people in Basildon to reminisce about their lives, stimulating both memory and  conversation which, combined with good nutrition, is a key ingredient for positive ageing.

The participating restaurants in Our Basildon Our Food are refreshing their menus to include their tasty new dish which will be available to the public from the end of November. There will also be a competition between the restaurants to come up with the best dish, with a public taste test to determine the winner.

Masterchef Mark Baumann praised the scheme and the food venues taking part. “It is fantastic that the town’s restaurants are getting behind this scheme,” he said. “By encouraging residents to sample tasty, low cost dishes when they are out and about, we hope they will want to improve their own cooking skills once they get back home.”

The project will run for a three month period, during which 43,000 households will receive promotional information and special offers. The programme will then be evaluated and it is hoped a further programme of activities will follow, involving more eating establishments in the town.