Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Spiced plum crumble with whiskey cream

When we entered the first lockdown back in mid-March, I wondered what I could do to help offer some encouragement and hope to people. Something that might bring a little solace and relief. We were facing into what we all thought would be weeks or maybe a few months of being restricted to our homes, of being cut off from friends and family and our usual routines. It was a strange and disconcerting time. When it came to my own family, I did what I have always done, I focused on food. Food can bring such comfort. Yes, it gives us sustenance, but it does more than that. Food nourishes our bodies, but it also comforts and reassures us, and most importantly, it allows us to nurture each other. Putting a plate of food in front of another person is an act of love, care, and concern. It feeds the body for sure, but also the heart and the soul.

This was evident early in lockdown when shops began to run out of flour and yeast was like gold dust. It seemed like the entire country was baking bread. Not because the shops had run out of sliced pans, they had not, but because, I think, people tapped into a deep and unconscious desire to provide themselves and their loved ones with solace and sustenance in a time of deep uncertainty and anxiety. There was little we could do to deal with the pandemic other than stay at home and try and keep each other safe. That may have felt rather passive to many of us, so we got active. We baked, we cooked, we fed each other. We shared our efforts with those with whom we lived, or by posting photos of our creations online and sharing them with those we were distant from. Even at a time of forced separation, our desire to make and share food brought us together.