A social enterprise dedicated to helping female refugees and immigrants hosted a supper at Sutton House last Friday.
The supper, organised by Mazi Mas, celebrated the influence of diverse communities on food culture in East London.
Guests were treated to a four course meal cooked by chefs from Iran, Peru and Brazil, showcasing the various cuisines that have helped shape food culture today.
A panel of PhD students; Lucy Dow, Celia Plender and Anna Cohen from SOAS and Nese Ceren Tosun from the University of Warwick, led a discussion on the meaning of food.
Tosun said: “On an everyday level we engage with the idea of ‘home’ as food.”
“Mazi Mas are a really good example of how to use food as a community building exercise. They [the chefs] are all migrant and refugee women who have had problems getting work in the UK and have found that food preparation is a way for them to engage and become economically active,” said Dow.
She added: “I was really interested in thinking about the role of Hackney as the site for introduction and experimentation of new foods.”
Mazi Mas events manager Charlotte Cheeseman said: “It was really special to do this at Sutton House, which has itself functioned as a safe house for refugees in the past.”
Cheeseman described the event as “a creative way of connecting the stories from more established communities in Hackney, with the newer ones told through Iranian, Peruvian & Brazilian food that night.
“It was a great opportunity for our chefs Roberta, Zohreh & Marlith to express what home means to them,” she said.
Mazi Mas is currently based at Oval House in Oval and will move to The Russet, Hackney in late January 2016.
Mazi Mas at Sutton House. Image: Tal Fox
