AN ORGANISATION which was set up with the help of City Mayor Peter Soulsby’s crowdfunding pledge to train chefs from the refugee and asylum seeker community is due to run its first online community cookery workshop this week.
Global Kitchen hosts and trains volunteer chefs who have sought refuge in the UK, so they can share recipes and cooking skills from their homelands with their local community through participatory meals.
The initiative is being run by Journeys Festival International (produced by ArtReach) in partnership with Soft Touch Arts to help train members of the local community to prepare dishes from around the world.
On Thursday, June 18, Global Kitchen will host its first online cookery session, held as part of national Refugee Week.
The event will be live cook-along with Zimbabwean chef, Linton Magume, cooking a tasty kidney bean stew and coconut rice.
Anyone who wants to get involved can download the Linton’s Coconut Rice and Kidney Bean Stew recipe cards from Journeys Festival website in advance and tune in to the live event from 6pm on Thursday.
All details are be included in the pack, but if people have any questions or want to get in touch they can contact elaine@artreach.biz
Earlier this year, Global Kitchen successfully raised over £9,000 with the help of 58 backers, to carry out their work in the city.
Contributors included the City Mayor’s Crowdfund Leicester, which donated £1,000, along with BID Leicester (£2,000) and councillors from Beaumont Leys, Abbey and Castle wards, whose wards each committed £500 each.
City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “I’m very pleased to see such a worthwhile group being able to host an online event like this, to share the culinary skills and tastes from around the world with local people.
“It’s a great way for people wanting to explore cuisine they may not have tried before to learn how to create it themselves in their own kitchens, with expert advice from skilled chefs.
“Not only are events like this a fantastic way to sample new flavours and cooking skills, but also serve to help people who are part of Leicester’s refugee or asylum seeker community to make a real contribution to life in the city.”
Global Kitchen is a collaborative project between Leicester’s Soft Touch Arts and Journeys Festival International Leicester (produced by Artreach) that began back in 2018. The project welcomes sanctuary seekers from across Leicester to train in Soft Touch Arts’ kitchen with Zimbabwean chef Linton Magume.
Together they share dishes from their homelands, recipes from their childhood or family homes while Linton trains them in the culinary skills required to cook for the public in a series of community meals.
An extended festival edition of the Global Kitchen cookalong is planned for October as part of the Journeys Festival online, with more recipes and chances to learn new skills and cuisines from around the world.
For more information on the Global Kitchen event visit www.journeysfestival.com/globalkitchen
Details of all Crowdfund Leicester projects are available here www.spacehive.com/movement/crowdfundleicester