11-Year-Old Bakes Pies to Support Chef Following Theft

An 11-year-old boy, who is autistic, is set to undertake a journey exceeding 100 miles to offer solidarity to a Michelin-starred chef whose thousands of homemade pies were destroyed. A van, which contained 2,500 pies intended for sale at the York Christmas Market, was stolen on Sunday. The vehicle was subsequently discovered damaged, with the pastries inside also compromised. Upon learning of the incident, aspiring chef Joshie Harris, who is non-verbal, resolved to bake substitute pies. Accompanied by his father, Dan, the young boy intends to journey from their residence in Peterborough to York this weekend to present the new batch to Tommy Banks, who operates acclaimed restaurants in North Yorkshire. Mr. Banks’ pies, valued at £25,000, were scheduled for delivery to the St Nicholas Fair event when the refrigerated van was taken from a business park located in Melmerby, close to Ripon. Cleveland Police reported that the van was discovered abandoned, fitted with false number plates, in the Hemlington area of Middlesbrough. Although the pies remained inside the van, they had spoiled by the point of the vehicle’s recovery. Mr. Harris recounted that he and Joshie were reading the news story, after which his son composed a message on his iPad, which serves as his communication tool. His message concluded with “I see sad man, pies finished,” prompting Mr. Harris to state, “it blew my mind that he had that kind of comprehension.” He further expressed, “It makes me incredibly proud that he could read the sentiment of the news article and understand that the man was sad.” Subsequently, Joshie has been actively preparing dozens of pies, incorporating the same flavors as those stolen, in addition to his preferred apple pie. Mr. Harris confirmed he has communicated with Mr. Banks and hopes they will be able to personally deliver the pies to him on Saturday. He added that should the chef be unable to utilize all of Joshie’s pies, any excess would be taken for donation to a food bank. “Joshie doesn’t speak but cooking and baking is his way of showing creativity,” Mr. Harris stated. He continued, “He wanted to show especially at Christmas that these kinds of things shouldn’t be happening.” “Also, it shows how that even though Joshie can’t speak, he can still be an active member of society doing good,” he concluded.