Cooking With Heroes: The Royal British Legion Centenary Cookbook

Product Information

Cooking with Heros, published in partnership with St James House, is a fitting tribute to the Royal British Legions centenary year. We're always happy to answer any questions or queries you might have, please get in touch using one of the methods below. Not just fantastic recipes from old to new but each recipe is paired alongside astonishing tales of bravery, determination and sacrifice as we celebrate 100 astonishing Military Heroes and Heroines in The Royal British Legion’s 100th year If you have already submitted another request to index a book or magazine yourself, please do not make any additional requests until you have indexed and submitted that book or magazine. A) I pulled together a team from the Military Family to engage with the RBL across the UK & Commonwealth… this was a Tri-Service Team of serving, veterans, reserves, friends, families and youth services. These became known as our RBL Ambassadors, a role that saw them engage with the RBL Membership in their region and to work with them to select a local hero or heroine who had ‘made a great contribution to UK Defence’ and that the RBL local Membership wanted to celebrate and represent them. The list is astonishing and whilst there are many well-known VC and MC winners in the Book, there are others much less well known like Captain John Perkins RN who was born a slave in Jamaica in the 18 th Century and rose to Captain a 32 Gun Naval Frigate; Sergeant Alfred Holmes from Gibraltar who looked after the Barbary Apes for 38 years; Sybil Kathagasu from Malaysia who gave her life standing up to the Japanese invaders during WW2 by supporting British SOE Agents and so many more amazing and courageous individuals who have been chosen as outstanding by the members of the UK’s largest Military Charity, so many of whom are veterans themselves… a wonderful mark of respect that I hope does their memory justice.

Cooking with Heroes Launch - THE JOEY Royal British Legion Cooking with Heroes Launch - THE JOEY

Q) Breaking bread together is a great way of bonding; can you share any traditions that you have experienced while you served in the armed forces, that you will always hold close to your heart?

To celebrate the centenary of the Royal British Legion, some of the world’s bestselling celebrity chefs – including Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott, Cyrus Todiwala, Melissa Helmsley and the Hairy Bikers – have teamed up with serving and ex-serving members of the military to create this unique cookbook. The combination of incredible dishes and amazing military stories will keep you reading before and after dinner, while contributions from high-profile supporters of the Legion will add a dash of celebrity spice. The book, Cooking With Heroes, represents 100 regions around the world in which the RBL has had a presence. With recipes from Antrim to Australia and Glasgow to the Gambia, each regional recipe is accompanied by the story of a local hero – a service man or woman or a civilian volunteer – whose contribution to others will be remembered forever. I had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with the Author Squadron Leader Jon Pullen (retired). Get to know the Author via some interesting answers he has for my interview questions to him.

Cooking With Heroes: The Royal British Legion - Target Cooking With Heroes: The Royal British Legion - Target

To celebrate the centenary of The Royal British Legion, some of the world’s bestselling celebrity chefs – including Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott, Cyrus Todiwala, Melissa Helmsley and the Hairy Bikers – have teamed up with acting or former members of the military to create this unique cookbook. The Royal British Legion, in partnership with St James’s House publishing, has launched a high-end cookbook celebrating a centenary of service to the Armed Forces community and their families. This is the third cookbook that Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Jon Pullen has put together, all of which have raised around GBP200,000 in total for military charities. In 2009 he teamed up with Help For Heroes to produce a charity cookbook that sold 25,000 copies nationwide. In 2017 he was behind the RAF100 Cookbook, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. Continuing his history of encouraging the military to raise funds for the military, Jon has assembled a team of writers and chefs from across the services, including serving personnel, veterans, reserves, families and friends, along with Royal British Legion members, working together to raise funds for the Legion. A) Probably Eggs, I haven’t much to add to the world’s knowledge of the million and one uses of eggs other than to say, even with all of the sweet and savoury uses of Eggs that are out there, nothing beats a properly prepared poached Egg. A) We sent members of today’s Military Family to engage with the RBL Membership. When I started the Project, these were supposed to be sit-down meetings in an RBL club, sharing stories of our service face to face with the Membership and as we say in the Armed Forces, ‘pull up a sandbag and swing a lantern’. The reality was sadly less engaging and fun with the majority of the engagements being over Zoom or old-fashioned telephones. Our team then took the chosen candidate and researched the individual before presenting the article to the editorial team.

The idea for the book was really a play on the RBL’s Centenary and what this charity that has supported the Military Family for 100 years means to me. So it started with a plan to write 100 entries, one for every year of the Centenary, with a focus surrounding the charity’s qualities… ideas like remembrance, tradition, integrity, strength, valour, courage, and support. If you turned these ideas into the food they would be home-cooked honest, authentic, traditional food but brought into the 21st Century. In terms of valour and courage, we worked with the RBL around the UK and Commonwealth to nominate someone who has made a great contribution to Defence to represent them, a ‘Local Hero’. And that’s what we have, 100 Regions across the UK & Commonwealth with a story of valour, endeavour, and often sacrifice alongside traditional, old and forgotten foods from that region. A unique idea that I believe properly captures the spirit of the RBL To celebrate the centenary of The Royal British Legion, some of the world's bestselling celebrity chefs - including Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott, Cyrus Todiwala, Melissa Helmsley and the Hairy Bikers - have teamed up with acting or former members of the military to create this unique cookbook. Q) Inspirational stories are a great way of holding the attention of the reader what is your experience and how did you go about selecting them? L to R: bespoke sweet treats for the launch by Biscuit Boutique; Pork and Stilton pie (Corporal Lee Coxon, RAF); Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Patron of The Royal British Legion; West Yorkshire Local Hero: the late Captain Sir Tom Moore.