A former Ritz chef who has worked for Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal is now feeding hospital staff in Helston but hopes to extend the project to the whole of Cornwall and further.

Paul Stephens, who has also spent time cooking for The Dorchester in London and Masterchef's John Torode for two years, had more recently been head chef of the Mullion Cove Hotel before moving to become pastry chef at Michael Caines's takeover of The Cove at Maenporth, Falmouth - until the coronavirus lockdown hit two weeks after opening.

Now with time on his hands, Paul and his partner Emily Close, who works for the Lizard Child Trust nursery in Helston, have launched a project to provide daily meals to staff at Helston Community Hospital.

Monday marked their first proper day, producing 30 portions of cottage pie and 30 slices of banoffee cheesecake that hospital staff could take home with them at the end of their day shift, as well five night shift members as they began work.

Falmouth Packet:

Paul cooking his first batch of meals in the kitchen loaned by Henlys

Paul, a former Mullion School student, now 38, said: "I'm trying to get it so I deliver it all just before the day staff go home, so they don't have to cook. They've just had a long, probably horrible day, so that's my goal."

Henlys has opened up its kitchen for Paul to cook in and businesses including Scorse Foods, Mrs K's Fruit and Veg and local fishermen Scott Eastwood have given produce to cook, with Shop Locally also promising ingredients.

He is also getting in touch with his contacts and suppliers in the industry, to see if they can help.

What he cooks depends on what is donated each day, with Paul joking: "I'm treating it like a massive Ready Steady Cook challenge."

An online donation page at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/meals-for-helston-nhs has been set up for people to support the project financially, with the money used to keep funding the meals.

Falmouth Packet:

Thirty portions of banoffee cheesecake ready to go

The idea came after Paul spoke with a friend who works at the hospital as a nurse.

Emily explained: "We started off just making an extra portion at home and giving it to him, and then we hard about other projects around the country doing meals for the NHS.

"We asked him if it would be appreciated and it just snowballed really rapidly from there."

However, Paul has an ambition to grow the project by encouraging other pubs and restaurants in the area to open up their kitchens for either their own chefs or others to work in, allowing all of Cornwall's NHS staff to be fed - and he sees no reason why it should not expand nationally.

"I don't see why we can't feed the whole NHS around Cornwall - there's enough chefs around. Not just in Cornwall but around the country would be good - I like to dream big!

"Obviously the NHS has a staff food budget; if we can get rid of that, feeding them with donated food, they can use that for PPE or whatever is needed. That's the big dream," he added.

Updates on the project can be found on the Facebook page 'Meals for Helston NHS'.