Food heroes of lockdown: Nottingham’s Alchemilla

Alchemilla, Nottingham’s newest Michelin-starred restaurant, initially launched a local delivery service in response to lockdown. Many loyal customers took advantage and enjoyed having Michelin-starred cuisine delivered to their doorsteps, often dropped off by the head chef & owner himself, Alex Bond.

However, Alchemilla has since decided to focus its energy on cooking for the NHS and vulnerable members of its community.

Each Friday, head chef Alex Bond and his team deliver several hundred free meals to Nottingham’s Queens Medical Centre and City Hospital to help sustain front-line NHS staff.

On April 3, Alchemilla posted on its Facebook page beneath a video showing stacks of pre-prepared meals: “That’s the first 600 dropped off at QMC. This is only going to get harder for the people fighting to keep us all safe. Stay safe everyone.”

A still from the video posted by Alchemilla showing meals produced for Nottingham hospitals. Click above to view it in a new window.

One comment left beneath the video said: “A massive thank you from the night shift team on AICU last night! The lamb hotpot was beautiful and the sticky toffee pudding was seriously EPIC! Xx”

Another, beneath a picture of a devoured sticky toffee pudding, said: “You have definitely brightened my day! Thank you kind people!”

Alchemilla has set up a donations page for anyone who wants to give money to its free-meals-for-the-NHS project.

As well as helping NHS staff, Alchemilla – along with several other Nottingham independents including Ugly Bread Bakery and Bar Iberico – has teamed up with Open Kitchens. Open Kitchens is a national food solution that brings together restaurants and their communities to fund, produce and deliver free meals to those in need.

Alchemilla posted on its Facebook page: “It’s official! We’ve partnered with Open Kitchens to #FeedThoseInNeed. Just £1.85 is enough to provide a meal to someone vulnerable or our tireless NHS staff… We’ve pledged our time and resources to provide 400 meals a week for six weeks! So we need your donations to fulfil this and make it happen. Help #FeedYourCommunity by spreading the word and donating via the link.”

To donate to Alchemilla’s NHS meals project, click here.

The author:

Matt lives in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. He is passionate about the independent food & drink sector and founded Great Food Club in 2010 after being inspired by local producers near his home town.