Chris (she/her)
Kitchen Coordinator & ResidentThree words to describe Braziers Park?
Spacious, interesting, multi-layered
Tell us a bit about yourself and your connection with Braziers Park?
I’m a community musician and cook, passionate about both food and music. I’m a percussionist and specialise in West African music, particularly djembe, which I adapt to a variety of groups and settings. I’m an activist and committed feminist, and do a lot of women’s work through music. I’ve just run my first weekend retreat for women at Braziers and will now be doing that annually. I also work with SEND adults and children through rhythm, currently as part of a long-term project with Hubbub Theatre Company in Derby. I’m particularly interested in communication in community, and the role rhythmic connections can play in that. The community at Braziers contains many musicians, and I’m hoping this part of my life will be nourished in my new home. I also love the land here and have a long-standing connection through attending Sacred Arts Camp, held yearly on the campsite. Although I’m new to the community itself, the land feels familiar because of so many years attending the camp, where I both teach drumming and cook for the crew.
I have come to Braziers after some time in Derby, my hometown, which I returned to in order to care for elderly parents until the death of my dad, and I retain some work connections with the town. Prior to that, I was in Brighton for 35 years. Having been freelance for a very long time, I’m now combining this with my part-time role as kitchen co-ordinator at Braziers. One of my main joys in this role is being able to pick vegetables from the garden and then cook with them – feeding the community from the land. I’m very much enjoying living and working in such a beautiful space.
Tell us about your role and responsibilities at Braziers Park?
I’m the Kitchen Coordinator, so it’s my responsibility to keep everyone fed. I do all the ordering and organise the rotas for who cooks when. We are quite a large community, and we also run and host a lot of courses, so this can be a challenging job.
I’m part of the hospitality team and work closely with the Housekeeper, the Kitchen-Garden-Link, and the garden team. Within the community – which includes both long-term residents and shorter-term volunteers – there are a whole range of people who like to cook. We enjoy great food, mostly vegetarian, and a proportion of it comes from our own garden.
We eat together twice a day, and when we have guests they eat with us, so the kitchen is a busy place providing for everyone. Organising cooking, cleaning, washing up, etc. is a massive task, and the whole community joins in on a rota system. Not everyone cooks, but everyone takes part in cleaning and washing up. We organise ourselves on a daily and weekly basis, and part of my job is to make sure it all runs smoothly.
Residents and volunteers are supported by me to learn to cook at scale, and confident cooks are given free rein in the kitchen, so we get a lot of diversity in styles and menus. We eat organically as much as possible, and source locally where we can. Volunteers gain experience with us in the kitchen as well as in other areas of the community.
In the summer months, all the salad comes from our beautiful garden, and we incorporate as much fresh produce into our diet as we can manage. We have some great chefs, a slightly temperamental old AGA, and the big, well-equipped kitchen is a lovely place to be in all seasons. We also produce fabulous cakes – both for residents and guests, and to sell at our Snowdrop Teas and May Day events.
Food and cooking are an important part of community life. My role is quite complex and involves a lot of “people work” as well as cooking. Community life requires co-operation, negotiation, and information sharing. We have good systems at Braziers, and all areas work together.
I enjoy my work (mostly!) and really love liaising with the garden team and using all the wonderful food we grow. I also enjoy the conversations that happen while cooking and cleaning – cooking together can be a great way to get to know people and deepen friendships. And then there’s listening to everyone’s music: we have some interesting playlists with so many different people, and international volunteers regularly bring new music into the kitchen. We often dance in the kitchen too, which makes me very happy.