Top Greater Manchester chef slams Tory MP after putting 'insulting' 30p comments to test

A top Greater Manchester chef put a Tory MP's claims that people could "make a meal for about 30p a day" to the test. Backbencher Lee Anderson sparked fury when he suggested in Commons that struggling Brits only use food banks because they "can't budget" and "can't cook a meal from scratch".

Gareth Mason, head chef of Absolute Bar and Bistro in Westhoughton, slammed Mr Anderson's comments as 'tone deaf' and 'insulting'. In response, Bolton-born Gareth set about trying to cook seven every day meals for 30p.

He managed to make meagre portions of seafood stick salad, beans on toast, and a 'spam fritter' made out of luncheon meat, but the 34-year-old raised concerns that an adult would struggle to get the recommended daily allowance of 2,000 calories per day from the meals. Gareth also said that most cheap ingredients are high in salt, fat or sugar.

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He said: "I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a load of rubbish. These meals I’ve done, as soon as you put any protein or dairy into them, it’s not feasible to do it for 30p.

“If you eat beans on toast for every meal, it might work, but even if you did cheese on toast, the cost of cheese would be more than 30p on its own. And you have the cooking cost on top of the cost of the food.

“Even if this MP is talking about batch cooking army food, even the smallest amount of spaghetti Bolognese is going to go above 30p.

“You could just about feed yourself, but it’s not going to be healthy or nutritious or get anywhere near the amount of calories an average adult needs to function each day. He’s treating people like peasants. Energy prices are going up, people are