A CHARITABLE cook is now minimising food waste and preparing meals from donated surplus foods after taking part in a TV chef’s cookery school.

Lorna Veitch, 69, of Pleasant Mews, West Mersea, has been interested in cookery since studying at catering college when she was 16 and she was a chef at Bristol University.

She is now a volunteer cook at West Mersea Bowls Club and has now completed a course as part of the Tesco Community Cookery School – an initiative helmed by renowned foodie Jamie Oliver.

The supermarket juggernaut, which works with food distribution charity Fareshare to donate 300,000 meals to more than 7,000 organisations every week, launched the project to combat food waste by teaching volunteer culinarians how to get the most out of the bulky quantities of produce, and sometimes unexpected ingredients, they receive using recipes composed by Jamie.

Throughout the free course, Lorna was educated on everything from the variety of ways in which she could use a knife and the importance of nutrition, to the ingredient-saving ways she can efficiently use flexible, base sauces to compliment the plethora of contributed food which arrives at her kitchen door.

Lorna is one of more than 1,000 cooks who have taken part in the enterprise, which will benefit many of the country’s communities and charitable organisations by teaching volunteers how to create delicious, balanced meals from food which would otherwise be thrown away.

After completing the course, Lorna said: “Thanks to the cookery school, I have learnt more about nutrition and how to make meals from donated food.

‘‘The course has benefitted all 20 of our volunteers, as well as the wider community, and we’re grateful to Tesco for the funding.”

Lorna was also presented with an award following the course, as well as a Jamie Oliver recipe book and some fancy cooking equipment.