Meghan Markle has wasted no time finding causes to support as a royal. Last week, the Duchess of Sussex, launched Together: Our Community Cookbook, which will benefit a charity that is near and dear to her heart.
Meghan, 37, was joined by husband Prince Harry, 34, and her mom, Doria Ragland, as well as the women from the Hubb Community Kitchen, at Kensington Palace to celebrate the publication of the cookbook. The Duchess helped prepare a meal of coconut chicken curry, eggplant masala, and chapatis at the palace.
Dressed in a black top by Tuxe, a pleated black skirt by Misha Nonoo, a bright blue coat by Smythe and Sarah Flint black pumps, Meghan looked perfectly comfortable turning koftas on a grill under a tent on the grounds of the palace. In a speech to guests, she referred to the project as a “tremendous labor of love.”
“I had just recently moved to London and I felt so immediately embraced by the women of the kitchen. Your warmth and your kindness, and also to be in this city and see in this one small room how multicultural it was,” she said. “I felt, on a personal level, so proud to live in a city that can have so much diversity. That there are 12 countries represented in this one small room, is pretty outstanding.”
The Hubb Community Kitchen, a group of women who prepare fresh food for their local community, arose after residents were displaced by the Grenfell Tower fire, the worst residential fire in the UK since the Second World War, which resulted in 72 deaths. The local women, in need of a place to cook fresh food for their families, started using the kitchen at the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, sharing the kitchen two days a week and supporting their neighbors in their time of need.
The Duchess, who was inspired by how the women were empowered by the project, asked them to put their recipes together to produce a cookbook, which features the women’s personal recipes from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Profits from the sales of the book will go to The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to benefit the Hubb Community Kitchen, help it reach others in the community, and inspire similar projects.
At the luncheon, Meghan and Harry sat with the women and their guests and enjoyed the meal, which also included a dessert of caramelized plum upside-down cake and spiced mint tea.
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In the book’s foreword, the Duchess writes, “I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together. Melding cultural identities under a shared roof, it creates a space to feel a sense of normalcy – in its simplest form, the universal need to connect, nurture, and commune through food, through crisis or joy – something we can all relate to… Through this charitable endeavor, the proceeds will allow the kitchen to thrive and keep the global spirit of community alive.”
