The community that cooks together, stays together!
That’s what it felt like at our two ‘Community Cook’ sessions at Miramar Maupuia Community Centre. We got to meet new people, have some ‘aha’ moments about ingredients and recipes, and – best of all – eat all the food we’d just cooked, as well as take some home for others!
We cooked gluten-free yoghurt flatbread, pickled cucumber with foraged mint, kumara nuggets, honey-soy chicken with foraged onion weed, and one-tray mac ’n’ cheese with roasted kumara.
It was a great way for us at Travelling Kitchen to find out what people really wanted to learn about – the clear winners were how to make a pickling mix, how to use gluten-free flour for bread, and how to use kumara in ways we hadn’t thought of before. We got to see if our new visual recipe cards were easy for everyone to use (answer = yes). And we talked about gaining the confidence to use up whatever's in the pantry and fridge to cook a tasty meal (and reduce food waste in the process).
We were so lucky to have such enthusiastic and curious participants. And it was a thrill to get feedback such as “The sense of belonging and successfully finishing the cooking project made me feel so good” and “This class made cooking so simple and easy – I’ll be able to make this at home for the family now”.
Big shout out to Juliette Davis and Claire Mckavanagh for volunteering to help guide participants with prep and questions about food – you’re both stars!
