Legacy Kitchen: New cookbook helps Britain talk about life, loss and the legacy left behind
30 September 2026
Created with TV chef Matt Tebbutt, the collection of treasured family recipes draws lessons from loss
- Four in five Brits (79%) worry about how their loved ones will cope after their death, but new research1 reveals 26 million UK adults have yet to write a will and 36 million (63%) have no life insurance
- Having delivered seven obituaries in as many years, Zurich has created Legacy Kitchen with TV chef Matt Tebbutt to celebrate the recipes, memories and traditions that keep the stories of loved ones alive
- Legacy Kitchen, available for free here, is a collection of treasured family recipes that serve as obituaries to 20 extraordinary people that have been loved and lost
- A Saturday Kitchen style film highlights the practical challenges families face after a bereavement. Lizzie, who lost her mum to suicide at 14, recalls: "whilst we inherited her amazing ‘Boston Beans’ recipe, we never managed to access her laptop...losing so many precious memories still hurts.”
- It follows the launch of Zurich’s LifeVault2, which allows customers to securely store cherished items like photos, recipes, and keepsakes alongside critical legal and financial paperwork.
A new cookbook, created by Zurich with TV chef Matt Tebbutt, invites Brits to remember lost loved ones through the recipes that brought them together. Having delivered seven obituaries in as many years, Matt partnered with Zurich to create Legacy Kitchen which celebrates the recipes, memories and traditions that help keep loved ones' memories alive.
It follows new research from Zurich1, which finds four in five (79%) people worry about how their loved ones will handle their death, and yet just 1 in 4 have taken comprehensive steps to set their financial affairs in order. Less than half of the adult population (48%) have a valid will, falling to one in three 35-to-54-year-olds (34%). In fact, just a third (32%) have a life insurance policy, and only 26% have made it clear how both their assets and sentimental items should be split.
Zurich’s research reveals food is one of the most powerful ways we remember lost loved ones, with two in five (37%) UK adults saying they have inherited a food-related keepsake, whether a recipe, a cookbook, a kitchen utensil or cooking pot.
Inspired by this connection, Legacy Kitchen is a collection of 20 treasured family recipes, contributed by people across the nation who have lost someone close to them. Curated by Matt Tebbutt and Zurich, each dish is an obituary to a life well lived, and an invitation to remember precious moments shared.
In the Kitchen
Hear from Matt Tebbutt, Edd Wilson and Lizzie Connick about how food connects them to those they’ve lost and keeps happy memories alive.
I've had to do seven obituaries on the show, on a Saturday morning show that I do, of chefs.
You know, they're colleagues, they're not family, so you're not sort of close, but it's still a tough thing to do, and you talk about, because essentially chefs and the nature of this work, they're big characters, so they all leave a big kind of hole.
So this is my grandmother's recipe, right, and this is one of the things I always remember. I was really very young. My brother hated it, absolutely hated it. However, I thought it was delicious and I loved it ever since.
Because I remember sitting at the table. I can remember it now and just being amazed by these big lumps of bone.
And I've always been into food, always been into cooking and stuff like that, potentially always greedy.
And it just so happens that my grandmother died just as I left university.
She left me a little bit of money, so I bought a scooter and moved to London, and I enrolled in a cookery school with the money that she left me.
So that sort of kick-started this career.
Ed, tell us about this dish, Thai chicken curry. Yeah, so my brother-in-law, his partner, owns a Thai restaurant.
When the lockdowns happened, we couldn't go there, so they gave us their secret recipe.
Soph used to cook it a lot at home.
I'm still learning at this point.
She died just about a year and a half ago.
And I'm still learning to be normal.
I can look back on certain memories though from the hospital.
I used to look back and only be able to think of the bad stuff, but now I can look back and manage to change my mindset and look back on some of the good things.
So one thing we did do while she was in hospital was get engaged, and we were married on the 11th of November. Obviously, it's not where we envisioned getting married, but I'm just glad we managed to get it done.
Unfortunately, she did pass away 12 hours after that.
I'd seen that you can have ashes put into a ring and I thought, what a great idea.
So, Lizzie, tell us about this recipe and what it meant.
So this is basically baked beans but elevated and, when I made it, I made it a little bit more chef-like but authentically to my mum. This is the more authentic version, I think.
I was immediately transported to my kitchen when I was about 10 years old.
I don't want to make it loads because it will lose its impact. It's quite an emotional thing, but if I want to feel close to her, if I want to conjure her, this is one of the things I make.
She struggled with depression, so when she was up for it, she was amazing.
How long ago was this?
She died when I was 14, so 12 years ago.
The language we have around suicide now is so much more effective.
It's really important, I think, to talk about it directly with people.
Really close to the 10-year anniversary of her death, we found this box of film tapes that she'd made between 2000 and 2005 or something.
It had about 25 hours of footage.
You didn't know this existed?
Yeah, I didn't know.
Oh my God.
It was really painful, but unbelievable, so special.
Because I hadn't heard her voice for 10 years.
It was like the family that I remembered.
What an amazing thing to have.
Matt Tebbutt, TV chef and presenter, comments:
“Food can be a bridge between generations and a bandage for the soul. As someone who’s delivered seven obituaries on air, for colleagues, chefs, friends, I’m intimately aware of, and in awe of, the vital role food plays in our lives, and its ability to connect us with those we’ve lost.
“Food has brought me comfort in bereavement, but it can help much earlier too, as a reason to get together and have difficult conversations about our own mortality and the wishes we have for when we’re gone. I hope this cookbook inspires people not just to remember a lost loved one but maybe reflect on how their absence might affect the world too.”
Comfort food
Almost half (47%) of people who have lost a loved one say that food, whether cooking or eating, has in some way helped them through their grief. A further one in six (16%) say that if they could spend one more day with a lost loved one, they would choose to share a meal with them.
Indeed, with the kitchen often serving as the heart of the home, it is where legacy so often lives. Only one in six people (17%) have inherited a family recipe from a loved one, one in eight (13%) received a treasured kitchen utensil, and one in 10 (10%) were left a beloved cookbook. About one in five (21%) expect to pass down a kitchen keepsake of their own one day.
Lizzie Connick, 26, lost her mother to suicide when she was just 14:
“Mum was an amazing parent to my siblings and me. Losing her at such a young age was hard and not being able to access some of our family memories made the grief harder. We never managed to access her laptop, which held so many family photos and documents. The thought of losing precious memories still hurts to this day.
“Amongst all this, I did get her throw-together Boston Beans recipe, this is a meal I make to remember the good times - something she’d make for me on a random and likely chaotic school night. It takes me right back there, and that's just the best.”
Edd Wilson, 33, lost his wife Sophie to ovarian and womb cancer aged just 29:
“Sophie showed extraordinary resilience, remaining positive and selfless despite multiple surgeries, failed fertility treatment, and a terminal diagnosis. When she died, the world lost its colour, so I chased anything that reminded me of her, the people, places, and the smell of the Thai curry that so often brought us together.
“Life was hard for a long time, and just when it felt like I was in reach of something like normality, I was hit with a second wave of grief caused by guilt for not thinking about her all the time. It took me a long time to feel ok talking about it, and it’s still so hard to do, but sharing this dish helps, and I hope it helps others to get together and remember their loved ones too.”
The weight of loss
Losing a loved one carries an emotional weight but often an administrative one too. From telling family and friends to cancelling subscriptions, house clearing to writing an obituary, nine in 10 people (92%) recently facing a bereavement shouldered at least one practical responsibility following the death. Among these, caring for dependents (92%) and keeping the family together (91%) were most often cited as being challenging.
These jobs are invariably tackled alongside, and often in the way of, grief and the emotions that come with it. 78% of bereaved people report that they struggled personally following a death, while 72% say they faced practical challenges as part of their family or friendship group.
In some cases, the turbulence resulting from a loss drove a wedge between family members, with one in five experiencing strained family relationships, and one in 10 never speaking to that family member again.
It’s notable that people who have lived through a challenging probate experience due to the absence of a will are significantly more likely to have their own end-of-life planning in order. Two in three (68%) of those in this cohort have a valid will, compared to just 48% of the wider population.
Louise Colley, Director of Retail Protection at Zurich UK, said:
“For me personally, getting my grandma’s Be-Ro recipe book which was dotted with sauce stains and flour dust, was a symbol of her love that will carry through generations. When facing a bereavement these keepsakes are priceless, and those left behind are often grateful they have survived. It’s why we give our life insurance customers the ability to save cherished items in their digital ‘LifeVault’ alongside the important documents that help family and friends navigate the turbulent waters following a death.
“None of us wants to imagine the day we are no longer here, but the choices we make now can be one of the greatest gifts we leave behind: easing the burden on the people we love when they are grieving most. Planning for death is not cold, morbid or administrative - it is love made practical. It’s an act of empathy that outlives us, even though we may never see its impact. Yet with only one in three people comfortable talking about death, too many families are left guessing. My hope is that this book gives people the reason and the courage to start today. Have the conversation, write down what matters, protect the memories, and make sure those you love know your wishes.”
James Tait, Director of Corporate Risk at Zurich UK:
“Preparing for the unexpected is one of the most thoughtful things we can do for the people who matter to us. Through Zurich LifeVault, employees of our customers can securely store important information alongside treasured memories, helping ensure loved ones have access to what they need when it matters most. It's a simple step that can provide greater clarity, reassurance and peace of mind for families in the future.”
To explore the recipes in ‘Legacy Kitchen’, discover the stories behind them in a short film, and find out more about Zurich LifeVault, please visit:
Notes to editors
1 Research of 2,000 UK adults (weighted to be nationally representative) carried out by British Polling Council member Opinium between 24th and 28th July 2026. Respondents could choose to skip some questions; results have been weighted accordingly.
2 The new Zurich LifeVault proposition is a secure digital platform, forming part of Zurich’s comprehensive loss support for customers and their families.