It didn’t just rain, it absolutely poured. Recipes and posters got washed away as the deluge battered our poor gazebos.  But cooks just kept on cooking which was just as well because as soon as the rain stopped people came looking for food.  Crowds of them. We might have hoped for better weather but we couldn’t have asked for a better beginning for the World Kitchen than the Gala Day in Leith Links on Saturday (13 June).

The aim was to bring people together to enjoy eating food from different cultural traditions of the world.  To break down some of the barriers daily life seems to set up. And it worked better than we ever dared to imagine.

“This is good,” said Luis with a broad smile on his face as the rain leaked in all around us. He had been just about to start his cookery demonstration when the sky opened. “We can improvise,” he said, setting out a dish of Portuguese food: prawn and coriander ‘pancakes’ made with chickpea flour and served on crisp lettuce topped with a delicate tomato salsa flavoured with lemon grass.

Loving Leith: Gurmit and Luis (on the right) enthuse about food

Cookery demonstrations were abandoned but there was still plenty to see. On the stall there was Maryjannas delicious sour apple cake from Poland (donated by the Kleofas Cafe), a basket of perfect Pakistani mangoes (thanks to Planet Asia), loaves of wonderful Irish soda bread (baked by Celia to Granny Barron’s recipe), and Fran’s tray of American choc chip cookies which stayed miraculously crisp despite the rain.

Then there was the hot stuff. A big pot of chilli pepper soup (a Nigerian recipe made by Patricia) began to draw hungry folk around noon.  Agnes (from the Africa Centre) arrived with trays of African maize porridge, chicken, beans and spinach cooked with peanuts. Mridu served up courgettes stunningly crimson in tandoori masala sauce and a chutney made with pineapples and almonds which went amazingly well with my Scottish potato scones (just as Mridu had promised).

Not dreaming: these are definitely real life pakoras!

And all the time Pip was conjuring up home-made pakoras at the other end of the stall along with her daughter-in-law Balvinder (pictured above),  “I was dreaming about pakoras in the night,” she says laughing at the end of a very long but successful day over a hot stove. I wasn’t sure if it would work.”  In fact it worked so well Pip was kept busy right until the last drop of onion, potato and batter.  (Fortunately we had brought an extra bottle of gas to fire the heroic old burners kindly provided by the Scouts).

Serving the last few spoonfuls: from the right Agnes, Alice and Jo

And still people kept coming back for more.  Just when we thought we had run out Alice arrived with a new pot of beans and coconut and reinforcements of maize meal.  Meanwhile, we began to invent combinations of food we had never thought of before. Not just Scots potato scones with Indian chutney, but Irish soda bread with African beans, and Portuguese prawn and coriander with Indian pakoras. And…”just give me a taste of everything you have got,” said one happy customer loading his plate.

Nick enjoys a multicultural meal

That’s it for now. But we will be back.  The World Kitchen has loads more stories to tell about our sponsors, the people who made the food and the places it came from.  And more events to plan. Thank you, thank you to all our friends and supporters. And special congratulations to Gurmit and Mridu who had the brilliant idea of creating a World Kitchen just a few months ago!

Flashback to April: Gurmit and Mridu making plans at Out of the Blue.

Just five days to go to the opening in Leith Links on Saturday 13 June and it’s getting decidedly hotter in the World Kitchen in Leith. [See also World Kitchen Cooks up a Storm]

At today’s planning meeting we started writing those last minute lists that always keep on growing. We’ve ordered tables, gas burners, and hot plates for the cookery demonstrations. Have we remembered the kitchen roll, bin bags, first aid kit, and paper plates? Don’t forget napkins, cutlery and table clothes. Oh yes, and how about some fine weather!

Gurmit Singh is collecting marquees to cover our stalls (whatever the weather). Mridu Thanki  will soon be heading for  Planet Asia in Norton Park, off Easter Road, who are generously providing  ingredients for our cookery demonstration on Gala Day.

Since our first story about the World Kitchen in Leith, just about a month ago, the planning team has grown.  We are really delighted to be joined by Agnes Holmes, chair of the Africa Centre,(see also Women in Harmony, another creative venture bringing people together) and Luis Lino, an electrician with a passion for food .  And there will be plenty of room for more to get involved in future World Kitchen events.

Between 12 and 4pm on Saturday 13 June we will be celebrating just some of the wonderful mix of cultures in Leith with food from Africa, India, Portugal and Scotland.  Not to mention a display of baking from different parts of Europe and Asia when the World Kitchen stall opens at 10.30 am.

Until World Kitchen in Leith has its own website, Leith Open Space will be keeping tracks of recipes and recording stories about food from different countries.  Right now we are concentrating on spices, prawns, chicken, potatoes, courgettes and peppers for Saturday’s menu. And I am off to practice making potato scones on my camping gas cooker!

A planning session in Out of the Blue: from the left Fay Young, Gurmit Singh and Mridu Thanki. Pictures by Nick Gardner

Gurmit and Mridu, cooking up plans for the World Kitchen in Leith

The idea begins with Gurmit Singh, an active member of the Sikh community in Leith as well as being a member of the Leith Festival Programming Committee.   Keen to promote community integration, Gurmit sent an invitation to every minority ethnic community group he could think of inviting them to take part in a cookery demonstration to celebrate their culture.

First to reply was Mridu Thanki, an enthusiastic vegetarian cook who has just started a cookery series, The Worldly Vegetarian, on Leith FM. “I love food, I love food from all over the world and I love to learn,” says Mridu explaining why she comes to be preparing for a 15 minute demonstration of Indian vegetarian cookery on Leith Links on Gala Day (13 June). For Mridu, who is writing a cookery book, food can be a creative art as well as a necessity of life. But it is also a social event.  “Food not only brings pleasure, it brings people together.”

Now Leith Open Space has joined Gurmit and Mridu in their weekly planning sessions at Out of the Blue. Sharing food, as we discovered at our first multicultural discussion event in 2005, is probably the best way of breaking the ice; making connections between different cultures and traditions. We have always wanted to build on the friendly buzz of the lunchtime break during our Open Space events.  This seems too good an opportunity to miss!

Rami Okasha serving lunch at our 2006 Leith Open Space multicultural discussion event on the theme”How can we widen opportunities?”

Why not join us? There is plenty of room in the World Kitchen.  As Gurmit says, “In our busy lives we do not always get a chance to meet people in other communities. We can become isolated. Through World Kitchen we want to celebrate all the vibrant colours, all the flavours and all the people who make Leith a unique place. We would like many ethnic communities to join us and make it a really colourful event.”

With enough support, Gurmit hopes, World Kitchen in Leith will keep on growing long after the cookery demonstration on Gala Day. “Whatever happens, we will have fun trying.”

Keep watching this space. We will let you know how plans are progressing. Meanwhile, please pass the word on – and if you are interested in getting involved just email leithopenspace@btconnect.com.  Or leave a comment on the blog.  We will be delighted to hear from you.

FEAST brought Chinese and Scottish communities together for a creative celebration of food and music in Out of the Blue in 2007.