ABOUT
Mazí Mas is a social enterprise with four main aims:
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to provide women with an independent income;
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to develop women’s existing culinary skills in a professional setting, in order to give them the confidence, support, and practical experience necessary to start their own food businesses or gain employment in others;
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to reduce social isolation and foster community through collective enterprise; and
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to preserve women’s recipes and diverse cultural heritages, and celebrate these as what makes London unique.
Mazí Mas is inspired by Maria Maroulis, a Greek woman who lived in the United States for nearly twenty years. An extraordinary cook, her dream was to open her own bakery - but she was prevented from doing so by her husband, who had rigid ideas about what a woman ought and ought not to do. Maria’s warmth, generosity, and amazing food shape the ethos of Mazí Mas, as they do her dinner table.
Mazí Mas was founded by Nikandre Kopcke, a half-Greek, half-German gender specialist and chef. Nikandre gained her MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation from the LSE’s Gender Institute, and has worked with FoodCycle, social enterprise Rubies in the Rubble, and eco chef Tom Hunt of Forgotten Feast. She is passionate about the rights of migrants and refugees, and did a stint as a volunteer advocate at the Hackney Migrant Centre.
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
About the team:
Carolin Goethel - Recruitment and Outreach
Carolin joined the Mazí Mas team in February 2014. The German-Polish food lover holds an MA in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy from Goldsmiths, University of London. Carolin volunteered as a detention centre visitor and is now responsible for recruitment and outreach at Mazí Mas. She is currently learning about permaculture and would eventually like to grow her own food.
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
Mara joined the Mazí Mas team in April 2014. She holds an MA in Cultural Mediation and Documentation from Lyon University, France, and uses photography to explore questions of migration and community life. Leading art workshops with Roma women in France, she became acutely aware of the challenges that migrants face in Western Europe and the socio-economic, political and cultural barriers imposed particularly on women. She sees food as a democratic and delicious way of sharing culture, providing us with roots wherever we go.
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
Elena Silvestrini - Employment Support
Elena joined the team in June 2014. She holds a MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation from LSE’s Gender Institute. She has been involved in feminist grassroots organizations in Italy and has been working at Rosa, the UK fund for women and girls. Elena is responsible for supporting chefs’ professional aspirations and progression routes. She thinks that food resides at the core of communities and loves its evocative and cathartic power.
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
Anna Dowrick - Business Development
Anna joined Mazi Mas in October 2014. She loves food, feminism, grass roots activism and problem solving. After studying Medical Anthropology at Oxford University she worked for several years in the third sector campaigning for improvements to the NHS. However, an academic as heart, she returned to research and her current doctoral studies focus on how GPs can support victims of domestic violence. For Anna, food can be as political as it is delectable. Mazi Mas provides an opportunity to share world-class cooking with the people of London, at the same time as challenging unfair structures which disadvantage some of the most vulnerable in our society.
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
Sadhbh O’Sullivan - Social Media and Communications
Sadhbh joined the team in October 2014. A part time cake consultant and a full time feminist, she has a BA from Cambridge in English and now puts all her reading about post colonial and feminist theory and practice to use in activism and social enterprise. She wants to learn more about social welfare and migration in the U.K, and is currently working on an independent feminist glossy magazine called Ladybeard. She is also using this opportunity to learn how to do more than over boil an egg.
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
Louise Ashwell - Press and Marketing
Louise joined the team in October 2014. She has been interested for a long time in grassroots activist groups within the wider feminist movement. Mazí Mas attracted her for its uniquely delicious combination of social enterprise with feminist principles. Using her experience in journalism and communications, she is looking forward to bringing the aims of Mazí Mas and its chefs’ unique stories to the widest possible audience. Contact Louise if you’re a print journalist or writer interested in writing about or promoting Mazí Mas..
Get in touch with her at [email protected]
Josh Falcolner-Roberts - Employment and Welfare Support
Joshua joined the team in October 2014. After volunteering with a number of social enterprises and self-sustaining communities whilst travelling in Brazil, he decided it was time to explore how organisations motivated by social change rather than profit could improve the lives of people in London and the UK. Joshua is responsible for supporting the development of our chefs’ skills and welfare during their time with Mazí Mas. He sees food as a window into different cultures and his heart and always experiments with new tastes wherever he goes.
Get in touch with him at [email protected]
Jack Rans - Admin and Events Support
Jack joined the team in November 2014. His love of good food from around the world and his interest in a social enterprise that would enable migrant women to use their culinary skills in the workplace naturally drew Jack to Mazi Mas. As a Cambridge Maths graduate, Jack wants to use his problem solving skills to facilitate the team to successfully meet the inevitable challenges along the way and thereby promote a future for hardworking women chefs.
Get in touch with him at [email protected]