UP CLOSE WITH: Richmond chef and her fabulous pasta delivery service

Last autumn, 29-year-old private chef Jessie Blanchard was concerned about the short supply of cooking jobs available to her due to the ongoing pandemic.

A few weeks later, she announced the opening of Mangia (derived from the Italian verb 'to eat'), a new handmade pasta kit delivery service that would enable Richmond residents to have professionally cooked pasta ready to eat without fuss.

"I just thought, 'I don't really want to work for anyone else anymore and would quite like to work for myself now.' So, I started thinking about how I could make that happen," she said.

Jessie decided to start small, only delivering to friends in her local area, but her business has quickly grown into a Richmond lockdown favourite. "I'm really enjoying it and would love to continue, seeing as it's working out so well."

Originally from Fort William in the Scottish Highlands, Jessie left at the age of 18 to study chemistry at Manchester University.

At the end of her degree, she realised that lab work wasn't for her, but did like the idea of working in a kitchen. In Manchester, she took up her first restaurant job and fell in love with making pasta, especially tortellini. From there, her passion for Italian food just continued to grow.

After a few months in Manchester, Jessie went on to work at Michelin-starred Glasshouse restaurant in Kew for 3 years, spent a year at the famous River Cafe and then worked as a chef at a pasta and wine bar in Melbourne, Australia.

After her travels, she couldn't resist returning to Richmond to settle down, and has worked here as a private chef ever since up until the beginning of lockdown.

When asked if her initial interest in chemistry ever influenced her cooking career, she says: "At the beginning, I was thinking of going down the Heston Blumenthal gastronomy root, but I just found it all a bit soulless. It's completely the opposite with Italian cooking, where you cook from the heart."

Jessie's obsession with Italy has led her to take multiple trips over the years and she admits she would "definitely live there if I could."

Mangia always offers two traditionally authentic Italian recipes per week (one meat, one vegetarian/ vegan). Jessie typically spends her Sundays poring through a pile of cookbooks to find new inspiration for the following week, picking out recipes that look particularly tempting.

Thanks to her extensive professional experience, Jessie knows which high-quality ingredients will work best for her pasta.

For the flour, she champions Molino Pasini tipo 00, while for eggs she favours the luxurious, free-range St Ewe brand. She also takes care to buy other ingredients from local grocers or premium retailers like Wholefoods and Waitrose.

Jessie's favourite pasta shapes to make are the semolina dough variety, such as orecchiette or malloreddus. As opposed to the whole egg dough, semolina is made only from water and flour, which means it therefore lasts much longer and can be dried out and stored.

"You really have to get into the zone, because it's a very repetitive motion and you can be standing there for hours. I like to put on a podcast and get lost in what I'm doing. They're so yummy to eat that it's definitely worth it!"

Jessie says her tortellini is probably her most popular pasta.

In November, she released a traditional pasta from Bologna called 'balanzoni', which is a bright green spinach dough tortellini stuffed with ricotta, parmesan and nutmeg - sounds delicious!

Impressively, Jessie hand-delivers all the pasta herself, which is why she's currently limited to Richmond postcodes. In her two-hour time slot between 4-6pm, the young chef has delivered as many as 14 pasta kits.

Jessie says responses from customers have been universally positive, with many returning to order again: "Everyone is so lovely and they're always happy to see me when I'm dropping off the pasta!"

"For me, lockdown is definitely all about food. It's one of the only things people have to look forward to some days, so it's incredibly important."

Mangia is only facing one problem so far - there's too much demand. Jessie explains why she's not planning on making larger quantities of pasta just yet: "It's definitely a nice problem to have.

"I sometimes get people messaging me asking if I can make more pasta available, but I don't want to risk hindering the quality of the product. It's important that I focus enough time and energy into each portion to make it as good as it can be."

She also talks about the possible expansion of Mangia in the future.

"At the moment this is all done from my home kitchen, so it's possible that I might move to a bigger flat. I would love to expand later in the year - watch this space."

Jessie hopes to continue with her delivery service post-lockdown and is considering offering other services, such as supper clubs and pasta cooking lessons. She has other ambitions, too.

"My dream is to one day open up a shop where people can buy my pasta; a nice little Italian cafe in the morning where people can have aperitivos and I can cook for them as well."

Given the success of meal delivery services like Hello Fresh (even before lockdown) with busy working households, the future looks bright for Mangia, thanks to its loyal customer-base and the one talented pasta chef behind it all.

Jessie releases a new menu on Mondays and we advise you to order quickly as the pasta sells out fast!

To see what's on the menu this week and place an order, visit www.mangiarichmond.com/.