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Young chefs and Community food workshop

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From the 22nd to the 28th of November The Good Kitchen created a unique opportunity and run out Young chefs and Community food workshop in Mussomeli. It was made possible thanks to a grant that we received from the brilliant team who run the Antonio Carluccio Foundation. THANK YOU so much for your support.


The idea of spreading knowledge and experience about creating and maintaining the work of a community kitchen arose from Danny McCubin even during the pandemic times. Then he set up two community kitchens in London. In a kitchen that was joined to a church in Notting Hill they were able to deliver over 2000 nutritious and delicious meals to vulnerable people in the area every week. But Danny faced limited information available on how to run a community kitchen and also very few resources in terms of cooking meals in bulk. This can be a challenge because for the recipe to work when you are cooking for hundreds of people, it is not just a matter of taking an existing recipe and multiplying it.


Now there is a demand for training programs tailored to chefs interested in cooking within community kitchens. Cooking in that environment, upscaling recipes and cooking with surplus food differs greatly from cooking in a restaurant. Currently nothing exists like it. Over time, the idea of creating resources for public cuisine and distributing them on the Internet began to be felt more globally and transformed into the idea of directly involving young chefs. After all, while still in London, Danny noticed that chef apprenticeships are no longer popular and, in particular, in the UK they do not feature in the top 10 choices for young people. And this trend is present all over the world. But, perhaps, a career for a young chef could be more appealing if there was a community element to it as well. This will make this profession more attractive. Similar thoughts and reflections helped to organize the Young chefs and Community food workshop here in Mussomeli, Sicily. In addition, the establishment of The Good Kitchen in Mussomeli is a good example. And this experience is worth sharing and inspiring young chefs.


Therefore, we are very happy and proud that this workshop took place, because it laid the foundations for the popularization and distribution of solidarity food projects.


He pursued the following main goals:


  • Connection: To provide a space to learn from each other and also make connections. Celebrate success.

  • Shared experiences: To provide a space for open and honest discussions on the challenges of running community food initiatives.

  • Regular workshop: Discuss the possibility of setting up a regular community cooking workshop for young chefs & community cooks in The Good Kitchen.

  • Creating an online resource for community kitchens: What would this look like? Resources and also a forum to connect.


Mussomeli brought together people with different backgrounds and experiences, who have their own way in the field of community cooking, but who are equally passionate about their work, striving to do good and make this world a better place.


These are the participants of our workshop:


Lauren Fried

A great supporter of The Good Kitchen. Lauren has also launched and run many community kitchens both in the UK and overseas.


Eva Manke

Eva is a young German currently volunteering with a Romanian youth focussed foundation called Curba de Cultura. The team at Curba are in the process of starting a community kitchen in one of their youth centres.


Ali Noor

Ali was the head training chef for Jamie Oliver Fifteen apprentice programme. A highly skilled chef, Ali has extensive expertise and a deep passion for community-based cooking.


Izzy Perot

Izzy is a young chef working in a community centred restaurant in London called The Sound Lounge. The Sound Lounge is “proud to be the UK's very first CarbonNeutral certified grassroots music venue as of 1st July 2021!” Izzy already runs community focussed food initiatives and has plans to develop and grow this part of the business. Izzy’s family is from Acquaviva Platani, a small village close to Mussomeli.


Deri Reed

Congratulations to Deri who recently was awarded the Community Food Champion 2024 at the prestigious BBC Food & Farming Awards. Deri founded The Warren restaurant in Wales and the community kitchen The Cegin Hedyn.


Marlene Schreiber

Marlene is a young German currently volunteering with a Romanian youth focussed foundation called Curba de Cultura. The team at Curba are in the process of starting a community kitchen in one of their youth centres.


Ingrid Wakeman

Ingrid is the Head Chef & Co-founder of Sussex Surplus a fantastic social enterprise that turns surplus veg into long life products and tasty meals.


Liu Terrile

Our Argentinian friend Liu has been volunteering at The Good Kitchen for the last 3 years. Liu runs free yoga classes at the kitchen and for the workshop she was our resident chef preparing incredible plant based food for all of us.


Valeriia Kharchenko

Valeria works for The Good Kitchen taking care of our website and also all of our stats. Valeria also volunteers with us and she had great input into the workshop.


We spent 6 productive days with such a team. The workshop covered important topics for the sector such as cooking techniques, team building activities, gaining skills on how to work with people in difficulty by sharing our own experience here in the kitchen.


Friday 22nd Nov - The attendees arrived in Mussomeli. The highlight of the day was a very special dinner where everyone shared what they were grateful for. In hindsight this would have been a brilliant opportunity for the group to share some of their experiences in community food and also their own projects and initiatives.


Saturday 23rd Nov - The group attended the opening of a new Banco Alimentare distribution centre in a nearby town called Caltanissetta. Banco Alimentare is the biggest food rescue charity in Italy and through all of their projects they provide food to over 260,000 people in Sicily every month. The Good Kitchen is a partner of Banco Alimentare. They set up a programme for us to rescue surplus food from the major supermarkets in Mussomeli four times a week. This is a great bonus that the distribution centre is now in a town nearby as we often rely on them for dried and canned goods. After the opening we all visited the ancient ruins in Agrigento, Valli de Templi.


Sunday 24th Nov - The plan was for the team to cook in the kitchen and learn more about our charity. The challenge was that we had a large group of visitors to the kitchen that day who were there to learn from us. This meant that the team did not have an opportunity to really experience The Good Kitchen. The other challenge is that the kitchen is small and it could not accommodate all of our volunteers and the attendees as well. We will be mindful of this for the next pilot workshop and provide more cooking opportunities for the attendees. We will also create opportunities for the attendees to get to know our volunteers and also the families who we look after.

Monday 25th Nov - We ventured outside of Mussomeli to hold the workshop in Torre Salsa. The session was all about creating an online portal for community kitchens.


Tuesday 26th Nov - The session was run back in The Good Kitchen and the focus was on the possibility of setting up a regular community food workshop for young chefs. From listening to all of the feedback it became very obvious that there was also a need for experienced community cooks and chefs to connect on a regular basis as well. The team also shared information on their own projects and as mentioned this activity should have been scheduled for the first day.


Wednesday 27th Nov - Preparing lunch for 20 guests and feedback on the workshop in the afternoon. Some of the more experienced chefs assisted the less experienced attendees to prepare the lunch. This was a fantastic moment and we were mindful that there should be more activities such as this one when we run the next workshop.


As the workshop unfolded, it became clear that the participants shared common challenges in managing their projects. While the original focus of the workshop was on young chefs, it quickly became evident that future sessions should also include community cooks and staff involved in running community kitchens. Addressing their unique needs and perspectives will be crucial to ensuring the workshops have a broader impact. At the moment there are limited opportunities for community cooks to connect.


Key challenges identified by the team included:


  • Sustainability - how the project can survive financially

  • Access to resources and training materials

  • How to network and collaborate

  • Access to mentors

  • Managing volunteers

  • Balancing commercial money making activities with community initiatives

  • Writing applications and applying for grants

  • Managing stakeholder expectations

  • Time management - having the time and resources to focus on PR / Marketing / Social Media


We worked very productively during the workshop, gained a lot of insights and formed a common vision. Therefore, the following results of the event can be singled out:

Young Chefs: It was agreed that there are limited opportunities for young chefs to gain experience in community food initiatives and that there is definitely a need for a forum / workshop for young chefs to connect and learn. Future workshops will also provide an opportunity for the young chefs to learn from more experienced community cooks.


Online Resource: It was agreed that there are limited resources online for community cooks and community kitchens. There is definitely a need for content and resources and also a platform for the community to connect. Some initial thoughts about content for the website - sustainability, cooking skills & techniques, safe guarding, equipment, rescuing food, food hygiene & food safety, team building, cooking classes, mentoring, infrastructure, charitable status, mobile kitchens, collaboration, pr, marketing, social media, fundraising, delivering food, recipes, upscaling recipes, train the trainer (to run cooking classes as a commercial activity), applying for grants, writing a business plan, managing volunteers, keeping accurate records for return on investment.


We also worked out the following joint steps, including applying for a grant / funding to set up the community food online portal. Once the website is established, the next step will be to host a pilot workshop for young chefs at The Good Kitchen, using the website's content as the foundation for the workshop. The attendees will then become active members of the website. The long-term goal is to create a worldwide network of community cooks, volunteers, chefs and staff working in community kitchens. The online portal will be a place for them to connect and share experiences. Once the workshop is established in Mussomeli there is the possibility of running similar programs in other countries.


These are our plans, and we believe that we will be able to achieve them.

Stay tuned for updates.

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