Food, glorious food!

My favourite brand idea of the year so far is one that appeals to my taste buds as well as my sense of zeitgeist. Cooking with Mama has been around for a couple of years, but tickled my taste as to being just right, just now.

The brand is a cookery school, based in London in Berlin so far, which offers unique cooking experiences to individuals and groups representing a range of worldwide cuisines. The clever idea that the founders had was based on an observation - big cities like London and Berlin are increasingly multi-cultural, a trend - people are hungry for cooking experiences, and an insight - there's no cooking like Mama's.

If you mix these ingredients together, you get a great idea: you recruit "Mamas" - super cooks from a variety of cultural backgrounds who have learned the secrets of delicious home-cooking from their mothers before them, and facilitate them to lead cookery classes.

It's a brilliant fusion of the traditional and new: harnessing wisdom, expertise and culinary tips and tricks that might or might not get passed down the generations with the new spirit of sharing, social generosity and community. The backgrounds of the "Mamas" include Sri Lanka, Trinidad, Brazil, Cameroon, Beirut and Mexico.

Best of all, it's empowering for the cooks involved - using food as a force for good.