the public kitchen in the uk€¦ · la cocina pública is a method for the exchange, production...

The Public Kitchen in the UK

“Every city, town o village preserves its own secret recipes that don´t appear on official menus. It is food “al natural” that doesn´t come from recipe books. It´s food based on the “good hand” and wisdom that people acquire in the difficult art of eating and hunger. They are dishes that circulate the fringes of luxury restaurants, but they are authentic in flavour and origin.…”

“Food and Drink of Chile” Alfonso Alcalde 1972

La Cocina Pública is a method for the exchange, production and registration of culinary contents. A mobile kitchen, domestic and warm, housed in a shipping container, travels through neighbourhoods creating social encounters around a dining table.

It is a project in search of recipes and aromas that will unveil stories, remember characters, reveal intimate moments full of flavours and humanity. The main actors, the neighbours, jointly prepare their recipes for the diners, creating a delicious collective event, which creates an appreciation for the diverse culinary aesthetics, practices and customs of the inhabitants of the local area.

La Cocina Pública is an event that exists insofar as it is linked to the social environment in which it is installed. Therefore, despite having pre-set scenes and a script, it is an event that is flexible, a performance that adapts to and nurtures the environment and the people at each location. In this sense, the work locally prior to the installation that we do; the meetings with local people and the gathering of their stories is fundamental to the success of the event.

La cocina pública is a centre of production and cultural diffusion, inclusive, accessible and equalitarian. All of us have an intimate relationship with food. When deciding what to cook, when selecting the ingredients, when deciding how and when to combine them. The process of cooking is the same of the process of artistic creation. In the kitchen we can develop individual and collective creativity connected to our past, because we are the heirs of culinary traditions, bearers of secrets and ancestral practices.

The kitchen is a shared art.

Methodology around the workThe work has 3 phases

The first phase is to make contact with local organisations, interview neighbours and find local people who are willing to take on key roles for the success of event (cooks, singers, poets, storytellers, sewers).

The second phase is the confirmation of a local team and the planning of the event (selecting recipes, poems, songs).

The third phase is the textile recycling workshop for community members, this happens during 4 days (depending on the context) before the big event. We use old material collected by the neighbours to create decorations and bunting for the main event the next day.

The work comes together on the last day with the presentation of all these elements of La cocina publica

Show -8 daysTeam arrives 8 members with 8 suitcases and 4 cases of material + guitar Installation of container Working with a local producer

Show -5 / -4 / -3 / -2 daysResearch into and meet with the local community and their surroundingsTextile recycling workshop Kitchen workshop

Show -1Preparation of the show

Show La Cocina Pública

Show +1 dayDay off in case of multiples showsDeparture of team and container

Proposal for the spaceShipping container 20” open side

The container is installed, its doors opened, exposing its interior in the public space. This gives the passer-by the idea of a performance space in which the interaction between the forthcoming event and the local town/city/village begins. The mobility of container makes it easy for it to be taken to many diverse places. When the festival is finished everything is put back into the container ready for its next encounter.

The team for La Cocina PúblicaMarta Núñez: Producer, coordinates team and relationship with external partnerMayra Olivares: Seemstress, in charge of textile workshop, costumes and propsWaleska Vilches: Seemstress, textile workshop assistant, costumes and props

Williams Luttgue: Set Construction, scenography Juan Larenas: Chef, in charge of the kitchen and the relationships with the local cooks

Nicolás Eyzaguirre: Director, adaption of the event and links with local placeKevin Morizur: Technical director and responsible for audiovisual

Carlos Canales: Musician

Semana de workshop in Vitry (fr)La Cocina Pública in Vitry (fr)La Cocina Pública in Chile

Nicolás Eyzaguirre Artistic Director

direccion@festivalteatrocontainer.cl

Kevin Morizur Technical Director+56 9 56309378

direccion@festivalteatrocontainer.cl

Marta Núñez General production

+56 9 53170011produccion@festivalteatrocontainer.cl

Centro Cultural Teatro ContainerSubida El Peral #94, Cerro Alegre,

Valparaíso, Chile

www.teatrocontainer.com