“It is valuable to share these recipes with other cultures and communities.”

When Mona and Basil from Rochdale got fed up in the first lockdown, they got into the kitchen and their aprons on. Their mum, Souhad, asked whether they wanted to start making videos, and Little Cooks Building Confidence was born.

Cultural connection through food

Basil and Mona were both born in the UK, but they want to have connection to their heritage and culture through food. In their cookery videos, the pair focus on traditional Palestinian recipes, such as houmous and falafel. People showed interest in these traditional recipes and new ingredients.

“It is valuable to share these recipes with other cultures and communities.” says Souhad.

And it’s not just the delicious Palestinian recipes that is getting the community excited. Whilst the food is cooking, Basil and Mona share stories and discuss the music they use in the videos. 

Technology forming connections

The videos began as a way of staying connected with friends and family, then, their sister in Palestine started uploading to YouTube and their brother in London helped with editing.  Their siblings have never met Basil and Mona so working on this project bring them together – connecting from afar.

Community connection

Basil and Mona’s cooking videos have proved a great way to maintain cultural community connection throughout lockdown.

Souhad is a community organiser with her local Arab community – Lamet Habayeb Association – a community group that has worked hard throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to support their community, particularly those isolating. The family started to share their videos with the community.

The videos have now received hundreds of views, and Basil and Mona’s confidence has flourished - they are really proud of themselves.

Zooms and new shoots

Souhad is hoping to continue sharing even more after the lockdown and is thinking about hosting Zoom cooking sessions, where parents and children cook together with Basil and Mona on Zoom.

Plans go beyond the kitchen too.

The family are looking at creating videos about growing, learning about the cycle of life through the vine trees in their garden, planted in memory of their grandparents.