A former Masterchef contestant who lives close to a hospital in London has started making pasta for NHS workers to take on their way home.
Marla Liguori started taking orders via her Instagram account, @CookingWithMarla, and is now regularly making home-made pasta and lowering it from her window onto the street using a piece of string in order to maintain social distancing measures.
Ms Liguori lives close to St Bartholomew’s, University College, and St. Thomas’ Hospitals, and staff from both have been utilising her service.
The 30-year-old chef explained that lockdown made her feel somewhat “useless” and she wanted to put her culinary skills to philanthropic use.
“I started thinking ‘how can I cook for friends without being around friends or family and still keep within social distancing?’” she said.
“I made some fresh pasta for a friend who was walking by and the only way we could think to hand it over safely was leaving it at the door.
“But that seemed a little impersonal so we just tied a string to it and lowered it down from my window — luckily I’m on the first floor.”
Now, Ms Liguori is making the fresh pasta to order so that NHS workers can collect it on their way home from their shifts.
“They message me on Instagram and tell me when their shift is ending and normally they ask if their colleagues are interested and bring them along,” she explained.
As for how she delivers the pasta: “I just wrap it in wax paper and tie it up and put a little personalised note with cooking instructions on there.
“I will write something like ‘Thanks for everything you’re doing day-to-day. Enjoy dinner’ or ‘dinner’s on me’.
“It’s picked up like crazy in the last week or so. I’m cooking for five or six people each day. “
Ms Liguori said she is quickly running out of supplies and has just ordered 50kg of double-zero flour from Italy.
“Hopefully that arrives early this week, I’m fast running out of it.”
The marketing manager added that she has worried about how she will be able to sustain her new project.
“I sat down and thought ‘if this thing gets out of hand and I’m making pasta constantly am I going to be out of pocket for hundreds and hundreds of pounds?’” she said.
“But when I worked it out it really wasn’t that much and I thought to myself that if I wasn’t in Covid-19 times I would be hosting dinner parties every weekend and spending more on dinner parties for my friends.
“I just thought to myself it’s not about the money — it was an easy no-brainer from there.”
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