Campaign is on to raise funds for new cookery school and events space
Pippa Middlehurst, winner of the BBC’s Britain’s Best Home Cook in 2018, is launching a new Kickstarter campaign on Friday 24th July to fund her first permanent cookery school and event space - Noodlehaus.
Pippa, a cancer research scientist-turned-cook, is known by her Instagram moniker of Pippy Eats and hosts supper clubs in Manchester. She also teaches cookery workshops, with a focus on noodles, dumplings and broths, paying particular attention to the molecular biology involved in cooking and the science behind flavour.
Noodlehaus will not just be for Pippa’s events, it will be a fully equipped space for anyone who has something to share
Noodlehaus, which will be Pippa’s first permanent space, will be a cookery school and event space where she will host workshops and supper clubs. It will be situated within a beautiful old mill on Devonshire Street North, only five minutes from Piccadilly Train Station.
Pippa recently came out of maternity leave and started working and saving hard to secure this space and finally bring her vision to life - a community workshop and event space for everyone. To help get Noodlehaus off the ground, Pippa is hoping to raise over £30,000 on Kickstarter. The money will go towards equipment for the cookery school, which will also cover free workshop spaces for local school children.
There will be some amazing rewards on offer for those who invest in the Kickstarter including:
- A private six-course supper club cooked by Pippa for ten people
- A year's supply of her famous chilli oils
- Lanzhou la mian Noodle workshop
- Signed copies of her debut cookbook Dumplings and Noodles, launching on 20th August. With an emphasis on inspiring anyone who has wanted to make Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese dishes at home but hasn't known where to start, this book will be a go-to favourite to satisfy cravings that will establish both dumplings and noodles as delicious and accessible.
Pippa has loved cooking since she was a child. Like most, she learnt from her grandmother and mother in the kitchen at home. She grew up collecting recipes she wanted to try, scribbled down on scrap paper with coloured pens.
As a young child her grandfather would take her and her brothers to a dim sum restaurant in Liverpool. She used to love trying all the new and exciting things – her brother really hated the egg drop soup, but she loved all the unusual textures. Underneath the restaurant was an Asian supermarket, full of strange and alien ingredients - this is where her obsession with Asian cooking began.
In 2018 Pippa left her job in the lab and began hosting workshops and supper clubs full time. She travelled around Taiwan, China and Japan, attended noodle school in Lanzhou and wrote her first cookbook, Dumplings and Noodles.
View this post on InstagramSo, this is it. . A lot of you know that I’m highly prone to self doubt and imposter syndrome, but I have never felt those things more than I do right now, whilst asking you to support me. I’ve also never felt so certain about anything - that, if this dream is realised, it will be enjoyed by so many. . I want so badly to bring this to fruition and to create this community space. To make it accessible for people to share their passion - their food, their skill, their art, their interests. Book clubs, workshops, classes, supper clubs, coffee mornings, parties, exhibitions, whatever - to foster creativity, community, inclusivity, sharing, learning. . I’ve worked really hard over the past few months. I came out of maternity leave early and began grafting and laying the foundations to make this a reality - I put all I have into this - but I need your help. . If you’ve ever enjoyed one of my cookery videos, used one of my recipes, or simply enjoyed my content or my food - please keep rooting for me! Please share my campaign! Please pledge if you can. There will be options for my friends at home and overseas. It feels like an awkward time to be asking for pledges, the industry is on its knees. The timing has fallen how it has, but it’s sink or swim for me. It has to be now. Im planning to create a couple of jobs here, and bring an accessible and affordable space for small businesses and independents to utilise. I know this is small, but hope it could make a difference to some. . If we do it, and I really hope we do - I cannot wait to welcome you all to Noodlehaus. The Kickstarter goes live on Friday at 6pm. You can find the link in my Bio. I will be opening the page tomorrow evening so you can view the rewards available and read the whole story. . Si Thi at N O O D L E H A U S (I hope 🤞🏼). Thank you @richardhall93 for my campaign video!
A post shared by 🍜🥟 Pippa 📍 Manchester (@pippyeats) on
Noodlehaus will not just be for Pippa’s events, it will be a fully equipped space for anyone who has something to share. It will be a place to learn, create, and share via workshops, classes, supper clubs and events.
“I am so excited to be able to create my dream cookery school in the heart of Manchester,” says Pippa. “The building is in an old mill and has the most incredible natural light which will be amazing for the photography workshops I will be hosting. The space will be open to all and I am looking forward to working with the community to provide a space that people can come and learn about cooking as well as share my love of cooking.”
Having invested a large sum of money on equipment to teach her own first workshops, Pippa knows that this isn’t an option for some small businesses that have skills they'd like to share. With Noodlehaus she wants to take those stresses away and make an accessible and well-equipped space for everyone to use.
Aside from a very busy schedule of Pippy Eats noodle and cookery workshops and supper clubs, the space will be available for hire to any creatives looking for events space, such as guests teachers offering all sorts of masterclasses from cake decorating, embroidery, life drawing, yoga and illustration workshops.
Noodlehaus will be a creative learning space for everyone to enjoy. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, the space is set to open at the end of September
Click here for the Kickstarter link
Noodlehaus, 37-49 Devonshire Street North, Manchester, M12 6JR
Website: pippyeats.com
Instagram: @pippyeats / @noodlehaus
