The chef feeding Manchester’s most vulnerable families | Mary-Ellen McTague – Manc of the Month September 2021
From cheffing in Michelin starred kitchens to battling food inequality in Greater Manchester, we throw the spotlight on chef Mary-Ellen McTague for September's Manc of the Month feature
“It’s not like an anti-wealth thing, just the good stuff has to be for everybody.”
“It’s not fair otherwise,” explains Bury-born chef Mary-Ellen McTague as we sit chatting about her food inequality project, Eat Well MCR, outside her restaurant in Chorlton.
Launched just before the start of the first lockdown, over the past year and a half the project has rallied together chefs from some of the city’s top restaurants and seen over 50,000 meals delivered to vulnerable Mancs in need.
What first began as a meal service for NHS staff soon pivoted to focus on families living in temporary and emergency accommodation – of which there are thousands in Greater Manchester.
The team at @australasia_mcr whipping up a hearty stew for people in need using donations of meat from @aubreyallenbutchers / Image: Eat Well MCR
These families generally have nothing but a kettle and a microwave to cook with, she tells us, meaning that no matter how thrifty they are with their limited budget they’re pretty much stymied from the off.
Pot noodles, we hear, are a regular feature of many diets as a result.
“It’s really difficult to eat even remotely well even if you’re a really skilled cook and you’re very thrifty and you’re really creative,” explains McTague, hitting on one of the key arguments given by those who seek to lay blame at the door of the individual.
“Even if you can do alright on the budget, you’ve got you’ve got no means for cooking anyway you know so it’s just such a barrier to being able to eat well.”
A chef of twenty years’ experience, she’s well qualified to comment – having worked at some of the country’s top restaurants, cheffing for the likes of Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck and Lancashire restaurateur Paul Heathcote before going on to open her own restaurants, first Aumbry and then The Creameries.
She also appeared, not once but twice, on the BBC2 show Great British Menu – reaching the North West finals both years, before going on to write a food column for The Guardian.
Having seen both sides of the coin, she knows all too well that there is a huge disconnect between the experience of restaurant customers and homeless families attempting to manage on minimal benefits and charitable donations.
For such families living on the bread line, choice is a luxury they can literally not afford.
“There are all sorts of food deserts in and around Manchester and other cities where what’s available to buy locally is really limited,” explains McTague.
“To have the choice to eat organic vegetables if you want to, the choice to occasionally not to have to cook your own tea, these are all choices that we just totally take for granted but just aren’t part of lots of people’s lives.”
“I don’t really think twice about ordering a takeaway but you know loads of people just wouldn’t, couldn’t consider it,” she says, before telling us about a takeaway night they run in partnership with a local food bank where they link up with different restaurants to give service users the choice to order what they want.
“It’s a big event and people get dressed up for it,” she tells us.
“It might be Chinese or it might be pizza or it might be fish and chips, whatever it is it’s nice, good takeaway food and the families choose what they want to have and then they come in on the Wednesday and pick it up.”
Image: Eat Well MCR
The issue of food poverty has been a subject of discussion for more than a decade now as food bank use has risen astronomically in the UK, with the number of Trussel Trust parcels delivered rising from the thousands into the millions since 2010.
Still, the plight of families is very much at the forefront of people’s minds right now – especially as many brace themselves for the removal of the weekly £20 Universal Credit uplift on 6 October and rising fuel prices that will lead swathes to have to make the choice between heating and eating this winter.
“I don’t know if you saw the Jack Munroe tweet the other day but she took a picture of what £20 worth of food looks like and it was just heartbreaking.”
“I mean, it’s like, you could feed your family for a few days – it’s like, for people making these decisions, £20 is just no big deal to them – they will never be in a situation where £20 makes the difference between eating and not eating.”
Again – this is what £20 looks like in groceries. What newsreaders should show every time they mention ‘the cut to Universal Credit’. The FSM campaign proved that raising our voices CAN make the Government u-turn on brutally cruel policies. So please, act now to #KeepTheLifelinepic.twitter.com/FVvBUitq07
Going into winter, Mary-Ellen tells us that one of the key messages Eat Well wants to get out is that they need more restaurants to work with them to help meet the growing demand food nutritious, quality meals over the coming months.
“We want to grow. We need more people cooking for us […] we need more chefs and restaurants to get involved.
“We make it as easy as possible for people, we deliver the ingredients, we then collect the meals and we distribute them, we do all the difficult stuff, we just need people to give up a few hours and just like turn what we bring them into something nice and tasty.”.
“Like, that’s not nothing – it’s a lot out of kitchen’s are busy and it’s but if someone feels that they can manage ten meals once every three weeks great, we’ll work with that, if someone else thinks they can do fifty a week, perfect.
Chefs at Hawksmoor Manchester with 50 portions of Roasted Red Pepper and Lamb Ragu, ready to go out to homeless Manchester families / Image: Eat Well MCR
“It’s just about having lots and lots of people doing the little bit they can manage.”
A truly inspirational Mancunian chef, what Mary Ellen is doing with her partners at Eat Well MCR is making the world of healthy and nutritious, restaurant-grade meals available to everyone in Manchester – not just those with disposable income.
Even though she didn’t take home the Chef of the Year gong at the Manchester Food and Drink Awards this year, she’s certainly a winner in our eyes – having reimagined the role of restaurants and chefs in one of the most challenging years hospitality has ever had, and what’s more, reimagining it for the greater good of the city’s most vulnerable.
Anyone in the industry who may be able to help can contact Mary-Ellen through twitter, @MaryEllenMcT or reach out to Eat Well MCR via their Give Support page.
Feature image- Mary Ellen McTague
News
The first new tenant of the old Debenhams department store on Market Street has been confirmed
Danny Jones
The first new resident of the Rylands Building on Market Street in central Manchester has been revealed, and it’s a foodie one.
Set to be the maiden opening inside the old Debenhams department store, which closed after more than three decades back in 2021, Rylands’ debut won’t be for another year or so, but it will soon welcome Mancs with an increasingly popular food hall operator making its way up north.
Simply called Market Place, the ever-growing brand is fast becoming a well-established name, with four venues in the capital already and a fifth coming soon.
Rylands will be their first location outside of London, and with 1,300 sqm of space at their disposal, Market Place Manchester is set to make a significant splash on the high street.
A look at Market Place Peckham.A rough idea of what the Manchester branch could look like.
Developers managed to green-light plans for the Grade II-listed building last November, sharing the first details and glimpses of their vision for the instantly recognisable city centre spot, including a whole new rooftop terrace.
Currently earmarked for a late 2026 launch, the former department store (previously Paulden’s) consisted of seven floors but is now set for a four-storey extension that promises to be a massive and varied retail, leisure and business destination that makes the most of the expansive structure.
Not to be confused with the famous John Rylands Library – a much older, more gothic, historic and hallowed hall over on Deansgate – this task of ‘revitalising a Manchester icon’, to quote property firm AM ALPHA, is a huge undertaking.
In charge of the redevelopment since 2023, the group have been outlining a pretty complete overhaul, with plans to convert the upper floors into premium office space, and the creation of a retail arcade at ground level, on which Market Place Manchester will sit.
This particular Manc corner was a bustling food, drink and shopping complex for the longest time, but has been derelict and covered up by boards for what feels like forever, with urban explorers even roaming the large, abandoned building.
Credit: Supplied
Now, though, the new long-term 15-year lease agreement will see the latest food hall kick off a new era for Rylands, delivering socially focused venues and the range of flavourful, vibrant choices of scran that Market Place have become known for.
With sites in St Paul’s, Vauxhall, Peckham, Harrow and soon Baker Street – as well as their eventual Manchester outpost, of course – the chain is getting bigger and better, meaning its arrival in the North West is an exciting one.
AM ALPHA manager Paul Hodgkiss said in an official statement: “Manchester is a city with a vibrant cultural scene – the perfect environment for forward-thinking concepts like Market Place Food Hall…
“The early commitment to Rylands is no coincidence: it reflects the strength of our strategic and forward-looking approach to development. We are not just creating high-quality space – we are setting new standards for urban mixed-use concepts. Interest from further prospective tenants is strong.”
It was only last week that Greater Manchester’s latest market hall, Campfield Studios, said hello to the general public and with House of Social also opening this summer, among several other similar projects, soon you won’t be able to move for more social hospitality scenes like this:
Manchester crowned one of the world’s best cities for music lovers
Emily Sergeant
Manchester has been crowned one of the world’s best cities for music lovers, even beating out New York along the way.
If there’s one thing Manchester is known and loved for over anything else, it’s music.
From Oasis and Joy Division, to Happy Mondays, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The 1975, and even more modern-day acts, there’s no end to the amount of talented artists this city has produced or been home to over the years, all contributing to Manchester being one of the most prestigious music cities there is.
The city’s live music scene has always been thriving, and that continues right through to this very day, as you’ll see big-name musicians including Manchester as a destination in their UK tour schedules more often than not.
This summer is all set to be a sensational celebration of sound, as not only is an immersive art trail, Music for the Senses, taking over the city from this week, but this year’s annual Manchester Day will be music-themed too, marking one of the biggest years for Manchester music in a long time.
Manchester has been named one of the best cities in the world for music lovers / Credit: Manchester City Council | Eldhose Kuryian (via Unsplash)
Oh, and there’s also the small matter of Oasis reforming for a UK tour, including a run of gigs at Heaton Park this month.
So it’s no surprise that Manchester has been named one of the best cities in the world for music lovers, especially as the IFPI Global Music Report has revealed that the UK has the third largest music market globally – with the music industry’s contribution to the UK economy being £6.7 billion on average.
Taking this recent report into consideration, the experts over at SeatPick have collated data to uncover the best UK cities for music lovers, analysing factors such as the number of concerts, homegrown talents, music businesses, and the total number of music venues, to reveal each city’s overall music score out of 10.
Coming in at second place with a music scene score of 8.97/10 is Manchester.
2025 is all set to be a sensational summer of sound in our city / Credit: Supplied
“Manchester remains one of the UK’s most iconic music cities and with 1,204 concerts between 2025-2026, 116 live music venues, and 380 homegrown acts, the city’s live music offering is as strong as ever,” SeatPick said of its findings.
“2025 is shaping up to be a historic year for Manchester, with Oasis reuniting for the first time in over a decade, with a massive comeback show at Heaton Park – the very spot where they played their last hometown gig in 2009.”
While Manchester may have missed out on the UK’s top spot, with that title going to London, in the global rankings, our city has claimed an impressive sixth place, beating out New York’s influential music scene.
Liverpool and Leeds are two of the other northern cities in the UK’s top 10, taking fifth and sixth place respectively.
“Cities which have a larger number of music businesses are key in creating the perfect city for music fans, as this impacts the city’s cultural, economic, and social vibrancy,” explained Gilad Zilberman, who is the CEO of SeatPick.
“A thriving music scene within a city means it can provide more artistic expression, support a wider range of genres, and enrich the cultural landscape, as well as attracting creative talent.”