The man on a mission to reform food education in Bristol and beyond

Barny Haughton is deadly serious about the need to build food education into the mainstream curriculum and make quality meals accessible for all.

The chef and founder of Square Food Foundation is set to launch a campaign, alongside key partners in the city, to make this vision a reality.

“I feel there is an opportunity here,” says Barny, speaking animatedly about something that he believes has the potential to transform our relationship with food.

“The campaign for food education through the pandemic has reached people’s consciousness in a way that wasn’t there before. People are joining up the dots.

“It’s the stuff of sustaining life and maybe up to that point, it had been taken for granted. Even perhaps the pleasure of it and the preciousness of it in the moment had been lost a bit. That simple thing of sitting down and eating with people had a new meaning for all of us. And for me too.

“Then there was the thing of people having to make do because they couldn’t go shopping in the normal way so they had to look in the fridge and the cupboard and be inventive. It forced people into being resourceful. I think people were looking at food in a different way.”

Barny Haughton is campaigning for food education across Bristol and beyond

Barny was awarded an MBE for services to the community this year – in part due to the colossal effort that saw him and the Square Food Foundation team cook more than 20,000 meals for families in Knowle West and neighbouring areas, but also in recognition of his 30 years pioneering food education and sustainability.

For him, the campaign for food education is not a new one but he believes we have reached a pivotal moment where politicians and educators may be more willing to accept the public health benefits of empowering everyone to cook and understand where food comes from.

As we speak, he turns to his screen to find the figures to back up his words. It makes for compelling reading, with 73 per cent of modern illnesses and diseases related to what we eat, according to Public Health England in 2016. The government body also states that eating seven vegetables a day reduces the risk of death at any point by 42 per cent.

“It’s not being taken seriously by government,” says Barny in frustration, adding that given the chance he would invite ministers to Square Food Foundation’s Knowle West kitchen for a three-day workshop on cooking and food education..

“As a city, whether we look at public health or politics or education or social cohesion or resilience, they all come back to food education, or rather the lack of it,” he continues.

“If we want resilient food systems, we need resilient communities. Cooking is a part of it.”

Barny ran Rocinantes on Whiteladies Road from the late 80s – a tapas bar that was something of a Bristol institution at the time – then Quartier Vert on the same premises. He went on to open Bordeaux Quay restaurant and cookery school in a converted warehouse on the harbourside in 2006 before leaving to focus on Square Food Foundation.

An early pioneer of using organic produce, he says that in those days people didn’t understand organic. “They still don’t,” he adds. “They pay lip service to it.”

He accepts that buying organic produce is an expensive option for many and is keen not to place blame on suppliers, supermarkets or shoppers but believes change needs to be led from the top and rooted in food education that can make access to quality, sustainable food equitable.

The How to be a Chef programme offers workplace training and qualifications to participants – photo by Bristol24/7

In the new year, Square Food Foundation, with Bristol24/7, is set to re-launch the How to be a Chef project, which supports young people to gain experience in the food and drink industry and helps them into future employment.

The charity is also working with Oasis Academy Connaught Primary School and plans to roll the ongoing food education programme out across more schools in south Bristol and beyond in the coming months.

The idea is to make food and creating meals a key part of each child’s everyday education. With partners such as chef Josh Eggleton and others on board, Barny hopes the campaign will make a real difference to the lives of people.

“I feel it’s important that people are having these conversations,” he adds

“What I have seen is the more we cook with people, the more they talk about their own food identity and food story.”

Main photo by Ellie Pipe

Read more: How to be a chef to return in 2021