Cookalong Live in Sound and Vision
As part of Live Longer Wales - the season of programmes from 鶹Լ Cymru Wales inspiring us to change our lives - on Friday, October 25, food writer and restaurateur Simon Wright will be inviting 鶹Լ Radio Wales listeners to “cookalong” throughout the day with top chefs, nutrition experts and ordinary people who love cooking.
Cookalong with us!
We want you to Cook along with us fromwherever you areon Friday October 25, as we bring our chefs' recipes to life in the 鶹Լ kitchens. Print off the recipes below and let us know how you get on!
Links to the recipes are further down on this page.
You'll be able to get in touch with us through the day by phone, text, email and social media - and we'd love to hear about your progress on-air.
Call 03700 100 110 or text 81012 on the day, or tweet us -
Live Video of the Cookalong
You'll be able to follow the cookalong on screen as well as on the radio: for the first time on 鶹Լ Radio Wales we'll be streaming live video of all the action in the kitchen to your desktop, mobile or tablet. From the first scrambled egg to the last scrap of supper, you'll be able to watch all the day's cooking live as-it-happens andvideo highlightsafterwardson our website.
What we're cooking - Info & Recipes
Simon will oversee four meals spread through the day’s programmes: breakfast with the Good Morning Wales team; lunch with Jason Mohammad; afternoon tea with Wynne Evans; and dinner with the presenters of Good Evening Wales. Each meal will illustrate a healthy eating theme.
“We wanted to do something that was fun and could really get people cooking,” Simon Wright says, “because I think that’s essential to eating well. If you don’t have the ability to cook then it’s very difficult to eat well. There’ll be lots of things going on during the day and lots of opportunities for people to cook along!”
The Cookalong Meals
- Breakfast - on Good Morning Wales from 6 AM
The theme: food as fuel, and how it's important for children in particular to start the day with a proper breakfast.
Our Cook : Simon Wright and his wife Maryann.
The Recipe: The Perfect Scrambled Egg (with variations)
- Lunch - on the Jason Mohammad show - on air from 10 AM
The theme: healthy food on a budget, and how it can actually be cheaper to eat nutritionally balanced food.
OurStudio Cook: Scott Davis, the Carmarthenshire chef and founder of food company Cnwd, who has worked with Marco Pierre White and Gary Rhodes.
- Afternoon Tea on Wynne Evans’ Big Welsh Weekend from 1pm
The theme:food that's social, fun, and can bring families together; why eating together connects us and is good for our psychological well-being.
We'll talk abouthowwe’re more likely to make more effort to cook from scratch when we want to treat our friends and family.
We will be doingall of this throughThe Power of Cake
OurStudio Cook: Zoe Caines-Leonard of Brynamman’s The Little Velvet Cakery. Zoe, who runs cake courses and recently presented Prince Charles with a cake for grand-son George, puts a healthy twist on a traditional carrot cake recipe.
- Dinner - on Good Evening Wales from 4pm
The themefordinner will besourcing healthy local food, looking at why it's importantto know where our food comes from -and why living in Wales gives us perfect access to the best non-processed food.
OurStudio Cook: top chef Stephen Terry - of award-winning restaurant The Hardwick and The Great British Menu fame - takes up the challenge of making a family supper using Welsh lamb on a tight budget.
Joining us for the Cookalong
Some 'Cookalongers' in various parts of Wales have already agreed to provide updates on their progress throughout the day, including keen amateur chef Bill King and his “pupils” - Bill teaches community cookery classes in Torfaen; Rebecca Boffy, who cooks for her women’s rugby team in Barry; farmer’s wife and cake maker Victoria Davies in Llanybydder; and various Cookalongers in north Wales arranged by chef Elwen Roberts.
Simon Wright: Why I Want to get Wales cooking
"It’s my belief (and there is plenty of research to back this up) that if people have the ability to cook they eat better and healthier as a matter of course. Cooking brings us closer to the food we eat, it helps us to understand it, to appreciate the diversity and endless magic of what nature provides for us in nourishment. It helps us to respect the things we eat, to treasure them and to resist wasting them."
"It’s also a wonderfully generous and creative thing to do - we cook for ourselves and others and in doing so, we make ourselves and others happy - what could be more rewarding than that?
"If we can’t cook it seriously limits our eating options, leaving us at the mercy of processed meals that often, in my opinion, are packed with the kinds of things that are making the major contribution to the crisis in obesity and diet related illnesses. So the ability to cook is liberating, it gives us greater freedom of choice in what we eat and above all it’s a lot of fun."
"So that’s what we aim to do on Friday 25th October for the 鶹Լ Radio Wales live cookalong. From breakfast until dinner we will be featuring star chefs, expert nutritional advice, Welsh food producers and of course contributions from you the Radio Wales audience. Most of all we want to get everyone cooking and letting us know about the results."
We Can't Go On Eating Like This...
Following the cookalong at 6 PM, Simon will host a discussion programme exploring Wales’s relationship with food - 'We Can’t Go On Eating Like This'.
In the programme, Simon and his guests – Food Minister Alun Davies, author of 'The Obesity Epidemic' Zoe Harcombe and NHS dietician Sioned Quirke - will be discussing how to ensure Wales can be fed in a healthy and sustainable way.