RECIPES produced by young chefs from a North Berwick youth group have been published in a special book, with easy step-by-step instructions to create exciting starters, mains and desserts.

North Berwick Youth Project has been running since 2001 and was one of the first youth cafes in Britain.

The project has evolved from a youth cafe to an organisation offering young people support, a base to spend time with friends, and employability and mental health support.

During lockdown, North Berwick Youth Project started an online cookery group to keep youngsters entertained and educated.

Previously, a cooking class took place at the town’s Hope Rooms, which young people attended weekly to choose a dish, go to the shops to buy ingredients, cook the meal and eat it together.

East Lothian Courier: Recipes include nachos and trufflesRecipes include nachos and truffles

Once a month, a group of older people from the community would join the session for an intergenerational meet and eat.

Now, the youth project carries out a class online, where one young person takes the role of head chef and demonstrates how to make their chosen dish – ingredients are delivered to the chef’s home by staff from the youth project, which received funding from Tesco Community Grants to do so.

Beth Smith, lead youth worker, said: “Not only have the young people learned new recipes but they have also grown in confidence and fed their families.

“We had been posting the dishes on Facebook and had quite a few comments from teachers at North Berwick High School and people in the community saying they’d love to see us create a recipe book.

“We had previously tried to gather recipes and had the intention of creating the book before summer but we were extremely busy and never got round to chasing it up.”

But last November, David and Judith Booth, of local firm Booth Creative, were contacted to assist the project after designing the youth group’s new logo and website.

Beth added: “We didn’t have a lot of time but thankfully the parents of the young people who take part in cookery were very quick at replying to our emails asking for their recipes.

“Within a few days, Booth Creative had put together a mock recipe book, which we were so impressed with.”

The cookbooks were printed a week later and ready to sell.

The book features five starters and light bites, 11 mains and five sweet treats, including Charlie’s locked and loaded nachos, Max’s out of the blue fish pie, and Angie’s amazing bounty muffins.

The recipe book is £6.50 or £6 each if purchasing more than one, with all sales of the book going towards funding for the youth project.

The recipe books are available in whynot? on High Street or by emailing Beth (beth@northberwickyouthproject.org.uk) or Lauren (lauren.cowie@northberwickyouthproject.org.uk)