food

Read Meghan Markle's touching foreword for her "Together" cookbook.

 

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Since becoming a member of the British Royal Family, Meghan Markle has been involved in a great number of charities with her husband, Prince Harry. And now, she is undertaking her first official solo charity project as a royal, helping the Hubb Community Kitchen.

Kensington Palace recently revealed that since January this year, as Markle was settling into her new London home, she had been making discrete visits to Al-Manaar, a mosque in West London, where a group of women were cooking fresh meals for those affected by the Grenfell Fire.

In the fire, caused when a community housing building caught alight on June 14, 2017, 72 people perished and countless others lost their homes.

When Markle heard about the charity that was helping those affected by the fire, she immediately got involved. Upon being told that the women of the kitchen could only open twice a week due to a lack of funding, the now Duchess of Sussex had an idea: a cookbook.

The end product was Together: Our Community Cookbook, which Meghan Markle has written the foreword for.

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The Mirror has released Markle’s foreword in full, in which she talks about the project and her passion for food as a means to bring communities together.

“In 2017, I had watched the Grenfell Tower tragedy unfold on the news; I was in Canada at the time, sharing the global sentiment of shock and sympathy for what this community was enduring, while also deeply wanting to help,” Markle says. “Fast-forward seven months, and I was set to meet some of the women affected by the fire, at a community kitchen in Al-Manaar.”

“The kitchen was opened after the Grenfell tragedy, offering women who had been displaced and the community around them a space to cook food for their families. Their roles as matriarchs united them across their cultures; the kitchen provided an opportunity to cook what they knew and to taste the memory of home, albeit homes some had recently lost.”

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Markle continues, “The kitchen buzzes with women of all ages; women who have lived and seen life; laughing, chatting, sharing a cup of tea and a story, while children play on the floor or are rocked to sleep in their strollers.”

Markle launched the cookbook at Kensington Palace, with her husband, Prince Harry, and mother, Doria Ragland, by her side.

Meghan Markle cookbook foreword
Markle launched the cookbook at Kensington Palace, with her husband, Prince Harry, and mother, Doria Ragland, by her side. Image via Getty.
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The Duchess of Sussex goes on to reflect on her "lifelong interest in the story of food", and says she sees this kitchen as a "passport on a plate", due to the sense of taste's ability to transport you to any country.

Markle also revealed her favourite meal: collard greens, black-eyed peas and cornbread. "This was always eaten on New Year’s Day, a tradition steeped in ancestral history where each component has a meaning: the black-eyed peas for prosperity, the greens for wealth, the cornbread for health and nourishment. It wasn’t a new year’s resolution; it was a wish. It wasn’t simply a meal; it was a story."

The new royal adds that through the book she wishes to "empower other women to share their stories through food."

"This cookbook is a celebration of life, community and the impact of coming together."

She ends the the three-page text by saying: "Now it’s time...to gather, Together."

To preorder read the Duchess of Sussex' foreword in full, and to make the delicious recipes, you can order 'Together: Our Community Cookbook' here.