So we had a very interesting Salon du Chat brainstorm in the impressive basement kitchen of Limerick’s Culture House, a Georgian house overlooking the People’s Park. Sitting in the basement while the wind and rain did their March thing we sat with Marta from Poland, Adel from Bahrain and Ajibola from Nigeria to create a special menu for The World Recipe Exchange.
World Recipe Exchange is a programme of food events based at Ormston House. It brings people together to explore the international culinary heritage of Limerick and creates meeting spaces for people of all cultures. By cooking, tasting and sharing food, they are also creating a database of recipes that originate from all corners of the world but are nowadays cooked side by side in the kitchens of our city.
At first the brainstorm was a little slow and polite and I think we were all daunted by the pages and pages of blank paper, but a few cups of jasmine tea, some snacks and getting-to-know-you-chats later and we had put together a glorious menu that brought some compassion and illumination to the life of the asylum seeker in Ireland and some awareness of humanity as an international community of individuals who want to belong.
I always enjoy the brainstorms where we get to delve into topics and tear them apart to create nuggets of conversation topics, but this brainstorm there was a different energy, with a sense of learning and listening. I think the resulting menu is gentler, with more caring and compassionate conversation topics than usual. I’ve listed a few of these topics below, but I hope you can join is in Ormston House, Limerick on Saturday 24th March from 2pm to 4pm for what promises to be a wonderful Salon Du Chat experience.
MENU TASTER
- The Melting Pot
- Give Thanks
- #righttowork
- Are We Human?
- See The World Through Me
- Liquid Identity
You can find out more about the World Recipe Exchange Project here:
Salon du Chat 