Target reached!
You can help this project to raise more and reach its stretch target.
Wander at Home - The Book
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
Whilst Wander is closed we are aiming to self publishing our first book, Wander at Home - A year of restaurant dishes at home
Wander at Home was created in April 2020 after the restaurant was forced to close due to the pandemic. From May 2020 to April 2021, we created 100's of dishes for our guests to recreate at home. With Wander reopening to guests in July 2021, I was certain that chapter of my life was behind me, but with Wander currently closed whilst I am appealing an immigration decision, Wander at Home is returning once again.
Wander is a small neighbourhood restaurant owned by me, Alexis Noble. Like many people during the pandemic, my visa extension was due for renewal, and last week I was notified by the Home Office that my extension was unsuccessful, and I would need to leave the country and essentially close down Wander. I will be appealing the decision and the restaurant will hopefully reopen in the coming months without my having to return to Australia, but in the meantime, very sadly, we will be unable to welcome guests. It is utterly heart-breaking and hugely stressful to be forced to close, even more so again after so many months due to Covid. Rather than give up, we are going to try and find a silver lining and use this time to create something really special. I had the idea last year to create a ‘Wander at Home’ cookbook, comprised of a year’s worth of dishes that made up our Wander at Home banquets. Back in April 2021, I wrote a rough outline at this point, I was so burnt out I couldn't get into the right headspace to write it all down.
Now that we are unable to welcome guests, creating and self-publishing this book will provide the perfect opportunity to provide continued employment for my staff, as well as keeping busy, creative and motivated. Like everything Wander, this book will be very DIY, and Lauren and I will spend the months intensely recipe testing, writing and shooting before having to learn how to use In Design and then self-publishing the book through Blurb.
The book ‘Wander at Home’ will be a 20 x 25cm hardcover book with up to 150 pages and over 60 recipes. Whilst it will primarily be a cookbook that will chronologically cover a full year of Wander at Home, it will also include stories associated with that time, as well as the things we learnt along the way about transitioning from a restaurant to a production kitchen and retail operation.
I know there is a lot of love out there for Wander at Home and many people are quite confused and upset by the situation we are in. Immigration is very difficult in every country, and there are so many people who have found themselves in similar positions throughout the pandemic. Wander and myself are so extremely fortunate to have such an incredible community and support from our guests and we will hopefully be able to navigate this difficult time and be back soon.
Wander at Home was always about adapting, pivoting and surviving and I feel it is rather fitting that it comes back for one last time to get us through this challenging time.
This project successfully funded on 23rd November 2021