Food has the power to bring us together, to nourish not just our bodies but our communities. In conversation with Jonathan Freedland, three culinary pioneers share their insights on how food builds connections and drives positive change.

Cook for Good CEO Karen Mattison joins with Soup for Good, blending recipes from Nigella Lawson and Gordon Brown with the story of the Kings Cross social enterprise. Former Ottolenghi chef Sarit Packer, co-founder of Honey & Co, talks about creating spaces where food and people thrive together. Karan Gokani, founder of Hoppers and author of Hoppers: The Cookbook, reflects on how food fosters community and belonging. A celebration of food, friendship, and its extraordinary ability to transform lives.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the speakers:

Karan Gokani is the Co-Founder & Creative Director of the award winning restaurant Hoppers.

Karen Mattison is a serial social entrepreneur, having founded and led three award-winning social enterprises. Following 15 successful years at Women Like Us and Timewise, Karen embraced her love of cooking to co-found Cook for Good, which is tackling food insecurity, social isolation and barriers to work by connecting businesses with a community in Kings Cross. In 2024, she launched a fundraising cookbook, Soup for Good, which sold over 6000 copies in the first three months.

Sarit Packer, together with her husband Itamar Srulovich, co-founded Middle Eastern restaurants Honey & Co. and Honey & Smoke: Grill House and delis Honey & Co. Daily and Honey & Spice: Food Store. The couple have written four cookbooks, write regularly for FT Weekend and The Guardian and host a podcast Honey & Co: The Food Sessions.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist and former Washington correspondent. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s contemporary history series, The Long View, as well as two podcasts, Politics Weekly America for the Guardian and Unholy, alongside the Israeli journalist Yonit Levi. He is a past winner of an Orwell Prize for journalism. He is the author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World as well as nine thrillers, mostly as Sam Bourne.