Lunch o'Clock (Community based project/participated event)

Lunch o'Clock was the result of a commission given by Architectural practice Studio Weave and it was part of One Mictham, an initiative supported by the Mayor of London, LB Merton and London Sustainability Exchange. One Mitcham is a project for the regeneration of Mitcham town centre and the improvement of local businesses and community.

Lunch o'Clock consisted in a series of weekly free cooking demonstration run by non-professional inspiring local food lovers who thought some of their traditional recipes to other locals. The session were hosted under a large canopy positioned within the local market area.
The cooking workshops had both an educational and social value, creating a strong group of participants made out of enthusiastic local followers.

Four cooking sessions and three weeks later people were ready for the Food Festival, which was the major event and also included other initiatives. On the day of the Festival all local chefs cooked their dishes in front of the public who assisted to the making of the food. In order to have some of the food festival attendees were given three options: to help out with the preparation, to buy a Mitcham Market bag or to engage in a community based treasure hunt that send them to the discovery of local shops and shopkeepers. On the menu there were also lavender shortbread biscuits, a reference to the lavender fields that once covered the Mitcham area.

All members of the cooking team were local. The idea was that the project could potentially be continued by the community itself. Interest in continuing the initiative was in fact expressed by some locals during the final event.
Some of the ingredients used for the cooking were sourced from local allotments and all the rest of the shopping was done in Mitcham.