GENET & ABEBA
In April, for the inaugural month, The Feature Kitchen hosted Genet (pictured) and Abeba who produced an array of classic Ethiopian dishes, with rolls of fresh injera. See menu.
Genet and Abeba over the last few months have been steadily building a reputation for their incredible Ethiopian food by hosting a sold-out supper club in Lewes and popular pop-up events in Brighton. Their food is amazingly tasty, and has been fantastically well-received.
Genet previously ran kitchens in Ethiopia and Kenya and has used the expertise gained since arriving in Brighton to cook voluntarily, for her daughter, family and friends and working towards getting catering qualifications. Then in 2016, with close friend Abeba, the idea was formed to one day form a food enterprise, specialising in exceptional Ethiopian food, and to, as Abeba summed up, ‘introduce people to our food and culture. For the family, for our kids’.
Omolola Brown
[#lolabcooks]
Omolola Brown cooks aromatic African and Caribbean dishes under the moniker #lolabcooks.
Through weekends in May & November people enjoyed an amazing range of dishes with fresh and cooked ingredients, with a condiment of hot sauce to add an extra kick for spice lovers. See menu.
Omolola describes her food as ‘a combination of my West African heritage and influences gained from the Caribbean community I grew up around, as a born and bred south-east Londoner’.
Having worked as a doctor for the past 8 years, Lola finally took a sabbatical earlier this year and is pursuing her creative passion, making tasty, healthy and nutritionally balanced food for new & familiar audiences.
KATE OF THE KITOKO KITCHEN
[#KITOKOKITCHEN]
For our third edition, in June, we welcomed a menu devised and prepared with guest foodpreneur Kate Muwoki of The Kitoko Kitchen (#kitokokitchen) - an enterprise created to celebrate Central & Southern African food, with a vibrant medley of vegan, fish and meat options. See menu.
This incredible food for the soul represents flavours from an often overlooked part of the continent. The delectable menu paired rich warming flavours of classic dishes with the abundance of locally available fresh produce like seasonal greens and locally caught mackerel.
Established in September 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa by way of Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, the Kitoko Kitchen celebrates the richness of Southern and Central African cuisine.
HONEY & ED
[#pestleandmortar]
For our fourth edition, in July, for three weekends we invited Honey and Ed (founders of Pestle & Mortar) to prepare a northern Thai menu (see menu).
A world away from the food commonly available in Thai establishments in the UK, July's meal featured dishes from Honey's hometown Pai, in northern Thailand. The food is influenced by the unique cultural and ethnic diversity of the region, deriving flavours typical of Burma, southern China, and India.
They crafted a northern Thai menu showcasing a range of brilliant, flavoursome dishes, using speciality seasoning with seasonal vegetables and locally sourced meat and ingredients (see menu).
SUE
For our fifth edition, in August, we invited Sue, who created a Swahili coast menu. See menu.
Sue prepared a menu from the Swahili coast, influenced in particular by the town of Lamu, in Kenya. Sue first visited and became enchanted with Lamu in 1984. She has returned there repeatedly since, between stints living & working in Malawi, Rwanda and Burkina Faso; finally settling in Lewes, from where she continues to make work trips to Africa. Despite all the travels, it is the food of the East African Swahili Coast, and in particular Lamu that captured her imagination.
The food is linked to the cultural worlds of the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea, with the food communicating the passage of ingredients & spices. The menu showcased a range of flavourful dishes with fish, meat and seasonal vegetable options.
DAN of ROTI RASCAL
[#rotirascal]
For our sixth edition, in September, we invited Dan, who created a classic Trinidad & Tobago Roti for home delivery with The Feature Kitchen. See menu.
Dan prepared a menu recalling his upbringing in Tobago, with a distinctive dhalpuri flatbread, served with a range of curries, sauces & fresh ingredients. The food of Trinidad & Tobago is a rich tapestry with cuisine that takes inteprets a range of influence from the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia (not least India). The menu showcased a range of brilliant flavoursome dishes, using special seasoning with seasonal vegetables, meat and fish.
GENET & ABEBA
In October, returning for their second run with The Feature Kitchen Genet (pictured) and Abeba produced an array of classic Ethiopian dishes, with rolls of fresh injera. See menu.
Genet and Abeba over the last few months have been steadily building a reputation for their incredible Ethiopian food by hosting a sold-out supper club in Lewes and popular pop-up events in Brighton. Their food is amazingly tasty, and has been fantastically well-received.
Genet previously ran kitchens in Ethiopia and Kenya and has used the expertise gained since arriving in Brighton to cook voluntarily, for her daughter, family and friends and working towards getting catering qualifications. Then in 2016, with close friend Abeba, the idea was formed to one day form a food enterprise, specialising in exceptional Ethiopian food, and to, as Abeba summed up, ‘introduce people to our food and culture. For the family, for our kids’.
HAZAR & NASREEN
Hazar has a mission to raise the profile of Libyan food in the UK from in and around her current home in Newhaven. Hazar has been cooking since she was 8 years old, surprising her mother by preparing a couscous meal for the family one evening.
Hazar's menu featured; sharba, a traditional Libyan soup made with a tomato base; cous-cous specially prepared over stew and infused with rosewater; grilled salad, charred vegetables with chilli blended; a salsa-like cucumber salad and a winter vegetable stew for vegans or vegetarians OR a slow-cooked lamb dish. The sides are moreish kofte, fried meatballs, basbousa, a traditional semolina sweet and karkadeh, a sweet hibiscus infused drink.
Her food is heavily influenced by her mother and grandmother's cooking, and her hometown of Tripoli.
JACOB
[#the groundnut]
Devising and preparing the menu is Jacob, who draws on dishes from his upbringing in Maputo to produce a menu that showcases some classic Mozambiquan dishes.
Jacob ran a food project named The Groundnut for five years along with two friends Folayemi Brown and Duval Timothy. With it they explored their African culinary heritage. They released The Groundnut Cookbook in 2015.
CHLOE
[#seven sisters spices]
Chloe Edwards of Seven Sisters’ Spices, prepared a sensational Sri Lankan menu. Sri Lankan cuisine shares much with the flavours of Southern India and East Asia, as is reflected in the menu, where tomatoes mix with coconut & lemongrass, curry leaves and cinnamon.
This meal captured Chloe’s love of spiced food, that stems from a life long enjoyment of the food of various immigrant communities she lived around in London for over 35 years, and the skills honed over the last five years developing Seven Sisters' Spices, a fantastic culinary business with a passion for all things spiced, healthy, flavoursome and sustainable.
