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Recipes and foodways are central to the cultures in which they are produced and can have incredible significance to the identities of those who recreate them. Recipes, however, are in a constant state of evolution and development in response to availability of ingredients, the tastes of those cooking and eating them, and the contexts that they are reproduced in. When people migrate, recipes and foodways migrate with them and permeate food cultures across the world, but what impact does this migration have upon the recipe? How do recipes remain authentic, and does this matter? What does the evolution of these recipes mean to the significance of their connection to ideas of identity and home? Join Jimi Famurewa as he explores the complexities of the ever-evolving recipe with cooks and food writers Jenny Lau, Maria Bradford and Shelina Permalloo. 

Included in Food Season Big Weekend Sunday or Weekend tickets, or available to book as a single session. Discounts available for over 60s and BL Members and half-price tickets for students and under 26s  

Maria Bradford is an award-winning chef, writer and founder of Shwen Shwen catering company, meaning ‘fancy’ in the Krio language. Born and raised in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, her love of food was cemented in the fresh local ingredients she was surrounded by in her youth. She moved to the UK and settled in Kent, she enrolled at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Her debut book Sweet Salone was published in 2023 by Quadrille; the first Sierra Leonean cookbook to be published by a mainstream publisher in the UK.  In 2022 she was listed in The Observer’s Top 50 in Food and has written for and been featured in BBC Good Food, Olive Magazine, Women and Home and many more. 

Jimi Famurewa is a British-Nigerian author, broadcaster and freelance journalist. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Wired, GQ, Empire and Time Out London. He is the restaurant critic for the Evening Standard, regular guest judge on the BBC One series MasterChef, a presenter on BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme and was also one of the lead judges on Channel 4’s The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver. He is the host of the award-winning culture and heritage podcast ‘Where’s Home Really?’, and, in 2021, he won Restaurant Writer of the Year at both the Fortnum & Mason Awards and the Guild of Food Writers Awards. His first book, Settlers: Journeys through the Food, Faith and Culture of Black African London, was published by Bloomsbury in 2022 and was shortlisted for Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He lives in South-East London with his family. 

Jenny Lau is a writer and community organiser. She founded Celestial Peach as a platform to tell and connect stories about the Chinese diaspora, and has since built a grassroots East and South East Asian community through her food events and multidisciplinary projects. In 2022, she was listed as one of Code Hospitality’s 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality and was nominated for People’s Choice Person of the Year at the Be Inclusive Hospitality Spotlight Awards. Her chapter on ‘The Community Centre’ was published in the food anthology London Feeds Itself (Open City). Her debut non-fiction book An A-Z Of Chinese Food (Recipes Not Included) comes out in January 2025. 

Shelina Permalloo is a TV Chef, Restaurateur and Cookery Author. Shelina was born in Southampton and is British Mauritian with both parents migrating from Mauritius to the UK in the 1970's.  After working as a project manager in the field of equality, diversity and inclusion, Shelina took part in and won BBC’s MasterChef in 2012. Shelina opened Lakaz Maman in Southampton in 2016, a restaurant inspired by modern Mauritian street food and run by an all-female management team. Shelina regularly features on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, the ITV show Cooking with the Star and she is a regular judge on BBC’s MasterChef. She has also featured as a guest chef on TV in show's such as Saturday Kitchen, Kirstie Allsopp’s Handmade Christmas, and John and Lisa's Weekend Kitchen.  Her first book Sunshine on a Plate, published by Ebury Press, reflects her Mauritian Heritage and won the Gourmand book awards for 'Best African Cookbook.’ Her second book The Sunshine Diet  was published in 2015, also by Ebury Press. Her community work in Southampton is extensive and was appointed Chair of Southampton 2025 City of Culture Trust. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shelina and her team cooked over 1,500 meals for key workers, unhoused people, and children, as well as supporting over 300 free school meals. She is an ambassador for Southampton’s Holiday Activities and Food Programme. 

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