A taster of just a few of the projects and workshops that we have delivered in the past couple of years:

EVENTS
We have led schools and community cooking workshops as part of the Bristol Food Connections festival in 2016, 2018 and 2019 including ‘A history of Bristol in 5 plates workshop’ for children and families on the main college green site. We have run a children’s workshop at Abergavenny Food Festival ‘Blas o Gymru’ , cooking some traditional Welsh recipes. We have delivered cookery workshops as part of Bristol Big Green week, Bristol Healthy Cities week and the Big Picnic organised by the Soil Association's Food for Life programme.

PROJECTS

Dishes of Discovery

In 2022 Travelling Kitchen was approached by the SS Great Britain to support their summer activity programme ‘Dishes of Discovery’. We researched dishes that passengers on the SS Great Britain may have eaten when they disembarked at various ports in the 1850’s and 1860’s. Using primary and secondary sources including accounts from passengers we recreated eight dishes of which three were chosen for tastings over the summer - a melon jam from Cape Town, a coriander and coconut chutney from Mumbai and Borscht from the Crimea. We also delivered a workshop with a group of parents from Hannah More Primary School which cooked more historical dishes from the different ports.

Meadows to Meaders

Travelling Kitchen is one of the partners in the Meadows to Meaders project which is exploring the history of Southmead, Bristol. We have explored food from the 1930s onwards, running intergenerational cookery workshops with pupils from the Orchard Secondary School, a workshops with Fonthill Primary School and Badocks Wood primary school and several community cooking workshops. The project is managed by Local Learning CIC. The first year of the project culminated in a soap opera with the Bristol Old Vic and the Southmead community for which Travelling Kitchen cooked authentic recipes from the period covered. The first phase of the project was documented by Calling the Shots.

Hillfields Homes for Heroes project

This project, managed by Local Learning CIC celebrated the centenary of Addison’s 1919 Housing Act. and the first Addison Act council houses built in Bristol in Hillfields. The project celebrates the history of these houses and the people that live and have lived in them. Travelling Kitchen CIC were delighted to have been invited by Local Learning CIC to participate in the project. We’ explored the social history of the area and what people who lived in the houses were growing, cooking and eating and cooked with children at Minerva primary academy school.

The Bearpit project

The Bearpit project, managed by Local Learning CIC, worked with St Barnabas school, City of Bristol College and the Bearpit Improvement group to explore the history of the area around St James Barton roundabout in Bristol city centre. Travelling Kitchen CIC developed a two day workshop based on recipes collected from their families by the children of St Barnabas Primary School. Eritrean lentil stew, Welsh Leek and Potato pie and Jamaican Bulla Bread were some of the dishes cooked and shared.
Stories from around Bristol's Bearpit

SCHOOLS WORKSHOPS

HISTORICAL COOKING
Cooking in the Age of Shakespeare
Travelling Kitchen cooked a range of Tudor dishes with Year 6 at St Michael on the Mount primary school. We also explored food metaphors used by Shakespeare to enrich their learning around their performance of Twelfth Night at Bristol University's Wickham Theatre

Cooking in the Second World War

Dressed for the home-front, Sarah and Clare of Travelling Kitchen worked with Year 5 and 6 at Oldbury-on Severn Primary School to create a Second World War picnic for evacuees from St Barnabas School in Bristol. The children cooked authentic wartime recipes and learnt how people adapted their diets to rationing. Comparisons were made with contemporary recipes and diets.

Cooking in the Age of Steam

Extending the work that Year 3 had done on Brunel and the SS Great Britain we worked with Blaise Primary’s history co-ordinator and teachers to research and cook both a Steerage and First Class Menu with the children. The end of the second day saw children being allocated a steerage or first class berth and dining on some of the dishes they and their classmates had prepared.  The experience was enhanced by using utensils from the period, a table laid up in first-class style with silver and linen and Victorian cookery books and equipment. The children were delighted to take home a pot of the Victorian piccalilli they had made, enabling them to share their experience with their families.

OTHER THEMES:

Cooking from other cultures

Travelling Kitchen delivered whole school event at St Barnabas school to celebrate diversity. Every child in the school helped to create a world picnic of over 20 dishes. At the end of day families and friends were invited to pay a small contribution to share in the feast with the money raised going to Refugee Action.

Cooking using leftovers and avoiding waste food

We worked with class 1 of Iron Acton Primary School to explore how we can avoid wasting food. We cooked recipes using leftovers and also using fruit and vegetables that were nearly (but not quite) past their prime. Not surprisingly the children loved making and eating the banana cake but it was also great to see them tucking into the vegetable soup and vegetable dhansak.

Healthy Food for family and friends

Travelling Kitchen cooked a healthy meal with Year 4 at St Michael on the Mount Primary School to link in with the nutrition and science topic that they had been covering in the classroom. At the end of the day the class enjoyed their meal of spicy bean chilli, tacos, salad, labneh and guacamole. As it was Easter they also made some delcious hot cross beans to take home to share with their families.