A Kingstonian chef who competed in this year's Masterchef TV show is live cooking improvised dishes at a London art gallery next week.
Paul Stafford is an artist and chef who lives and works in Kingston.
Earlier this year, he swapped his painting tools for kitchen utensils to compete on the BBC's renowned Masterchef programme — making it all the way to the semi-finals.
Next week, Mr Stafford will combine his culinary and artistic expertise in a new project to be hosted at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation in Archway, London.
Paul Stafford — The Art of Cooking will see the Kingstonian chef invent dishes live with unseen ingredients before then making art works based on the outcomes from the kitchen.
"Once I've sourced the food that's going to be thrown away I'll invent a dish live at the gallery and then make paintings of the things I've done," Mr Stafford told the Comet.
Mindful of the environmental impact the catering and food industries have, the Kingstonian has committed to making the artistic project "completely carbon-free" and will source all the ingredients for the food from nearby supermarkets who might otherwise have thrown it away.
"Everything we cook will be food that would have been thrown away, everything that we produce will be given to locals to take away and eat if they want it, and every painting that I do will be painted on recycled cardboard boxes," Mr Stafford described.
"We're really trying to do this with no carbon footprint, using nothing that's new," he added.
Mr Stafford revealed that the boxes were being sourced from Kingston business Bevan's Butchers — the family business recently named as the "Best (butchers) in Britain" as the Comet reported recently.
Further, the cooker that he will use for the project will be donated to a charity in Archway.
The ethically-charged art installation reflects Mr Stafford's growing appreciation of the need for awareness about the impact human beings can have on the world around them, amid the rising climate emergency.
"I try to be environmentally concious in my work," Mr Stafford, who is a former head of Art and Design at Kingston University, said.
"It happens to be at a time when this is big news...our exhibition won't cost anything, it's eco-friendly, carbon neutral and all the materials will be recycled. That's how it should be I think," he added.
"Making something from nothing was my favourite part of Masterchef. Hopefully I'll get some good ingredients that will be interesting to cook, but who knows? We'll find out on the day!"
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