Thornton Heath Afro-Caribbean cooking sensations Craig and Shaun McAnuff, behind the hit book series Original Flava, have held an online food festival as part of their efforts to build a studio for underrepresented talent in food.

The festival timed to coincide with Black History Month, saw legendary chef Ainsley Harriot, Great British Bake Off contestant and presenter Liam Charles, vegan Youtube creator Rachel Ama, food writers Riaz Phillips and Melissa Thompson, and young chef Omari McQueen in the line up.

The festival was part of the McAnuffs’ wider effort to build a new media studio and mentoring programme for their shows and upcoming food media talent, the former of which started life at their Nan’s house in Thornton Heath.

The ultimate goal is genuine representation for young Black chefs and cooks. The brothers said: “We believe in representation, growing up, there were a small amount of black chefs on our screens. We feel it’s