Dreams can come true!

This week’s blog post comes from all our chefs, commenting on their debut together catering for the BMW Live Tate Thought Workshop at Hoxton Hall on Saturday 26th October. The Tate Modern’s BMW Tate Live Thought Workshop series is a project involving a diverse group of participants who responded to the initial call: “If you had a year to change something, what would you change?”. We were incredibly pleased to be asked to cater for this event, and had a truly wonderful day. As I’m sure you’ll agree, the chefs are already on their way to making the changes they want to see this year.

Firstly, here are Fitsum and Azeb’s thoughts on the day. They were the head chefs for the Ethiopian lunch which included: mouthwatering awaze tibs (beef with berbere chili); azifa (brown lentils with mustard, lemon, green pepper, garlic); kek alicha wot (yellow lentils, ginger, garlic); potato, cabbage & carrot with turmeric; beetroot and potato; lamb with winter greens; and ended with Roberta’s Brazilian dessert of lime, polenta and fennel biscuits with dulce de leche.

“The whole thing was amazing there was an incredible team work. For the Ethiopian lunch time everybody worked as a team and cooperated and helped each other. When Jamima and Roberta made the South American and Filipino food together after Ethiopian food served all of us again worked together. Moreover there were a good environment in the kitchen while we were working the job, we chatted and laughed so much it was fun to be in the kitchen with such lovely women. And also it was so inspiring when the guests came to the kitchen and thanked us for the lovely food. Well done all of you guys.”

Fitsum

“In a few words: It was a spectacular and unforgettable day!! All the worries were about the guests appreciating the food and how we would present it in the room, but after it gave so much happiness to all of us! We are winners and we can say for sure it was an unforgettable day! If we are together we can go forward. Viva Niki, Roberta, Jamima, Fitsum, Azeb. We are the strongest group in the World, aren’t we?!!!!!!!!”

Azeb

Jamima and Roberta then took over head chefs role with a fusion of Brazilian and Filipino recipes for dinner. Their menu included: lumpia (Filipino summer rolls); Brazilian bulgur, mango, cashew and mint salad with Filipino tocino (bacon marinated in pineapple juice, garlic and lemon); Moqueca (Brazilian fish stew with palm oil, coconut milk and coriander); Filipino-style squash in coconut milk; Filipino-style stir-fried green beans; and finished with passion fruit mousse & brigadeiros (Brazilian sweet made with cocoa and condensed milk).

“The thought of mixing my recipes with Ethiopian and Brazilian recipes and serving them to people who are complete strangers was really thrilling! To be honest, I felt a bit scared at first because I thought that our recipes might not blend, but I was wrong, they turned out to be the most compatible recipes ever.

What I’ve learned from this is that we shouldn’t be afraid of differences no matter where they are from, no matter what cultures, we will always find compatibility. And even though sometimes it is natural to get scared of the things that are alien to us, we should not close the doors to learning from these differences because I think this is very important in building cohesion amongst migrant communities. Having said that building cohesion nowadays takes a lot of innovations, and I think cooking together is one of the most unique ways. Last week says so!

I look forward to more cooking with all of you! Another inspiration for me.”

Jamima

“I arrived at the beautiful Hoxton Hall at the same time as the South London beauties: Niki, Charlotte and Zahra. Straight in with our first job of many to come: me and Zahra rolling up the brigadeiros (Brazilian chocolate truffles), tempting even that early in the day. Not to forget the help from our new employment support volunteer, Alex, who kindly bought some last minute cocoa powder for the job.

The place started to fill up with food, people and life! The improvised kitchen was set up in a cosy room, which was used as a corridor by the Tate guests to access their workshop room. That was a bonus (most of the time) because it allowed us and them to be closer to each other and create a bigger connection: many would stop, look, have a chat, try something, share a joke and specially make some flattering comments, which nice people normally do! The Tate people (that’s what I called them) also got to be regular part of the kitchen and made it feel even more interesting.

With the arrival of the second wave of South London beauties - Fitsum, Azeb and Jonathan (our mascot!) and last - but by no mean least - Jamima, the full team was formed. And what a team it was!

Everyone found their jobs to do and got on with it. Not a single raised voice, apart from some louder laughter or lively chat, no annoyed looks or disagreement. It all worked as smooth and in tune as a well rehearsed orchestra. Probably a lot has to do with the maestro and we had the most loving and charming maestro I’ve ever seen - Bryony took the job with perfect balance of ease and control. And of course behind all of it the hands and smiles of our Niki, we all know what I am talking about…

An array of ingredients, pots, pans and finally dishes started to appear and roll through the kitchen continuously till evening and this way we went through the day without noticing the time passing… The chefs and Niki’s speech to the guests were heart warming and the atmosphere was electric and fun! At the end of it all the sense of mission accomplished, the rewarding feeling of a job well done, the companionship and support between all of us stayed with me as a sweet memory for much longer than the next day. Such a huge task and it all went so smooth and well!

I finish with the certainty of this being the first of many events to come and the conviction that more than the success of the event, what is so gratifying is working together, sharing and supporting each other, opening your heart to other people and them to you are the most rewarding of all achievements.

I speak for all the other chefs and say how grateful we are for all of you wonderful people who are behind it, helping us to move forward.

And who says dreams cannot come true?”

Roberta