It was crumby for chef Tommy Banks when his van containing $30,000 worth of pies was stolen, but Michelin–starred chef has appealed to the thieves to donate them to people in need.
“I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas and maybe we can feed a few thousand people with these pies that you’ve stolen, do the right thing,” Banks said in an Instagram video Monday, shortly after they were taken.
The refrigerated van was filled with 2,500 pies with a variety of fillings including steak and ale, turkey and butternut squash, Banks said.
Staff went in the “morning to pick up the van and it has been stolen,” from the business park in Ripon, a cathedral city in northern Britain, he said. He added that it had been “plugged in overnight” to keep the pies fresh.
He added that he had planned to sell the pies at a pop-up stall in the nearby city of York.
Admitting that it was unlikely they would return the vehicle, he said the thieves should “drop the pies off somewhere” so they can be given “to people who need food and they are not wasted.”
“I know they’ve gone now and we obviously aren’t going to recover them to sell them,” he added. “I just think that’s 2,500 people we could feed and there’s a lot of people who could do with a hot meal right now. If we can find them, they can have them.”
Banks, a veteran judge on British cooking show The Great British Menu, asked any members of the public who are offered pies with his branding from someone who is not him to report them to the police.
NBC News has contacted North Yorkshire Police for comment.
He had a less forgiving message for the thieves themselves.
“I hope you don’t get any presents this Christmas,” he said in a separate post on his personal and business Instagram accounts.
