When a Michelin-starred chef in England had over 2,000 Christmas pies stolen on their way to a Christmas fair, an unlikely baker stepped in to help.
The story comes from the country’s northeast, where an award-winning Christmas market called the St. Nicolas Fair in the city of York, was set to feature 2,500 pies baked by Chef Tommy Banks, whose restaurant received the coveted star in 2013 during his first year as head chef.
However, the van transporting the pies to the event was stolen, driven off, and abandoned, with all the pies inside perishing.
Autistic 11-year-old Joshie Harris was reading the news with his father, and although he is non-verbal, he understood what was happening—that a man was sad, and that pies needed to be baked.
When they had finished reading the news report, Joshie held up an iPad which he uses to communicate. On it, he wrote, “I see sad man, pies finished.”
“Joshie doesn’t speak but cooking and baking is his way of showing creativity,” Dan Harris, Joshie’s father, told the BBC. “He wanted to show especially at Christmas that these kinds of things shouldn’t be happening.”
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Since then Joshie has been busy baking dozens of pies of all different flavors, but especially his personal favorite, apple pie.
Mr. Harris has been in touch with Chef Banks, and the family hopes to be able to hand off all the pies on Saturday. Any which he can’t use will be donated, the family told the BBC, to a food bank.
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“[I]t shows how that even though Joshie can’t speak, he can still be an active member of society doing good,” said his father proudly.
You can follow Dan and Joshie’s mission on their social media accounts, including Facebook, and Instagram.
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It is perfectly acceptable language to use “they/their” to refer to one person when you don’t know what gender THEY are. (<–See?)
In this situation, however, "THEIR" refers to the pies, not the chef. "The pies were stolen on their way to the fair."