Oskar Frere-Smith (VAV-graduation year) and Eloïse Dieutegard (Jewellery – linking bodies graduate)
Rietveld canteen chefs.
1. What are you currently working on?
"We turned our 2m2 kitchen into a test kitchen. I'm trying out celeriac in an altered kimchi recipe. Eloïse made her own ginger beer with rosemary and chilli with a 'ginger bug' she cultivated. We’ve been making stocks, brining, infusing, all sorts. All our ingredients are cheap and available. We like sharing recipes, so send your food. We have experience as chefs and worked in a few restaurants, now we work in the Rietveld canteen and plan to do more food projects there."
2. What has changed for you now that most of us are working from home?
"We are dealing with it, I need to find a new job but there isn't a lot of hope in the job market at the moment, so that's taking my energy. I'm also currently in my graduation year so it feels like the pressure is on. Between us we have enough gadgets and tools to keep making, so little things for now. I'm starting to see this as an opportunity, not as a problem, a new type of adaptability, in time will treat us well."
3. And what is staying the same?
"We are still poor and struggling with the uncertainty of life. We still live together and love it. We were apprehensive about the lockdown but actually it's been really nice spending time together."
4. Do you have a tip for our students, staff or alumni to make these isolating times a little but more joyful?
"Food is more ancient than sex and fire its good for the soul. Share your food, cook together. We are fermenting a lot, which takes time and patience, it's therapeutic in these strange times. An important man in a video said this week "We are specialists in the domain of imagination" and with the doom and gloom of everything I think that's easy to forget. Keep making keep eating x"
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