Duchess of Sussex launches cookbook with Grenfell community

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, a group of women affected by the tragedy began meeting twice a week in the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre to cook for their families. The space allowed the women to prepare fresh food for their families and neighbours, many of whom were staying in hotel rooms with no kitchen facilities, but it also allowed them to connect with and support each other. Accordingly, they named it the Hubb Community Kitchen, from the Arabic word for love.

In January of this year, shortly after moving to London, Meghan Markle began visiting the Hubb kitchen and helping with the cooking. Today, Kensington Palace has announced that as her first solo project as a royal, Meghan will be launching a cookbook named Together, with recipes written by the women and a foreword written by the Duchess of Sussex herself.

The 50 recipes in the book reflect the rich diversity of cultures that makes up the Grenfell community. The book is filled with Eastern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African recipes, many of which have been passed down through generations, and many of which Meghan herself cooked, shared and ate with the women during her trips to the kitchen. In her foreword, the duchess says that the kitchen brought cultures together under one roof and allowed people to enjoy 'the universal need to connect, nurture, and commune through food, through crisis or joy'.

In a video released to promote the book, Meghan says, 'I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen. Like these women I am passionate about food and cooking as a way of strengthening communities.' The Duchess also refers to 'the healing power of sharing food', a theme underpinning the book, and reflected in its title: Together: Our Community Cookbook.

The cookbook is intended to raise funds so that the Hubb Community Kitchen can operate seven days a week, and other proceeds will go to related projects.

Together will be published on 20 September by Penguin Random House. Click here to order