Bedford residents share family recipes in new community cookbook
Residents from four Stonewater retirement living schemes in Bedford have come together to celebrate culture, heritage and community.
It’s for a new cookbook created in partnership with The Higgins Bedford art gallery and museum.
The Food for Thought project ran from November 2023 to August 2025 and brought together customers who shared cherished family recipes along with the memories connected to them.
Through workshops led by The Higgins Bedford, participants explored dishes which formed part of their childhoods, family milestones and cultural traditions.
The recipes have been combined into an illustrated recipe booklet featuring dishes from around the world, including India, Pakistan and Ukraine.
As part of the creative process, customers from Presentation House, the Lodge, Warwick House and Raglan Court were photographed and sketched, helping to share not only recipes but the memories connected to them.
Daughters also helped mothers record dishes which previously had only existed in memory and oral tradition.
Stories of cooking in clay ovens, childhood delicacies and celebrating family occasions with traditional sweets were documented alongside recollections of Bedfordshire heritage.
Among the contributors were Mrs Banti who shared her family recipe for chickpea curry and an Indian flatbread called puri.
Mrs Banti said: “I learned this recipe from my mother in India and have passed it on to my daughter.”
Mrs Bibi, from Presentation House, shared her recipe for googiyan cookies, a traditional sweet from northern Pakistan.
She said: “We use make these for weddings and celebrations. It is tradition that when a daughter returns to her in-laws, she takes freshly made googiyan to share.”
For Mrs Kaur, contributing her recipe for khichdi brought back vivid memories of her childhood in India. And Mrs Randova, who grew up in Ukraine, contributed her family’s borscht recipe.
Copies of the cookbook will be kept at the retirement living schemes and added to The Higgins Bedford Social History Collection to preserve residents’ experiences for future generations.
Cynthia Knight, central east scheme manager at Presentation House who led the project for Stonewater, said: “What has been so special is seeing customers from different backgrounds come together, listen to and respect each other’s stories and feel proud of where they come from.”
Lydia McDonald, keeper of social history from The Higgins Bedford, added: “These stories are an important part of Bedford’s social history and we are proud that the cookbook will form part of our collection for future generations.”