Humayra and her sister Khadija
A few weeks ago, two teenage sisters who live in Craigmillar joined us for their first ever paid hospitality gig. The two girls — Humayra, 14, and her sister Khadija, 16 — have recently been spending lots of time chopping, stirring, tasting, experimenting and learning in our kitchen. However, on this particular Friday, their class was extended as they were heading to the City Art Centre to help us cater for a very special evening celebrating the life and work of Craigmillar photographer Sandra George. It was a pretty spectacular setting for a first hospitality job!
The event took place on the top floor of the City Art Centre, with huge windows looking out across Edinburgh. As the evening drew in, Waverley Station, South Bridge and Princes Street stretched out below us, while the Scott Monument was lit up in colourful lights against the dusky sky. The girls had never been to this part of the city before and were loving the views!
We were there to feed around 70 guests, with a spread of homemade canapés and colourful drinks, all made by the Edinburgh Food Social team.
Sandra George, who sadly passed away in 2013, was an Edinburgh photographer and community worker whose work documented the people, communities and social movements of the city over more than three decades. This summer, the City Art Centre hosted Sandra George: Start from the Level, the largest exhibition of her work ever staged. The exhibition brought together more than 200 photographs from her extensive archive, many of which had never previously been shown publicly. The collection is held in the Craigmillar Now community archive, making the exhibition particularly significant for us. Sandra’s work explored community, identity, activism, family, motherhood and the lives of young people, as well as documenting the social action projects she was involved in across Edinburgh. So there was lots that made the exhibition extra meaningful for us!
And, fittingly, there were plenty of young people involved in making the evening happen too.
If you don’t know about our Friday Girl Gang, let us introduce you. There are now around six young women who come into our kitchen on Friday afternoons to learn new cooking skills, try out different ingredients and have a good time together. It started with one of them coming along as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award. She told a friend about it, her friend came along, then another joined, and another. Before long, we had our own little Friday afternoon gang of budding young chefs! They are such a naturally curious and creative bunch, always willing to try something new and asking loads of questions. They are also absolutely hilarious and have all of the chefs laughing along with them, making the EFS kitchen a super fun place to be on a Friday. A few weeks ago, some of the girls came along to help us cook and serve at Sandy’s Mini Fest too.
Homemade parsnip pakora with garlicky raita
Over time, we’ve watched them become more confident in the kitchen, picking up practical cooking skills as well as learning about hygiene practices, health and safety and how to work as part of a team. So when we had the opportunity for two of them to get some real hospitality experience, it felt like a brilliant next step.
Biscuits with a view (and decorated with Craigmillar petals!)
Neither of them had ever worked at an event like this before and they didn’t really know what to expect. But when they arrived, dressed smartly, with their hair tied back and ready to work, they got stuck straight in. Almost immediately, they started packing things into the van we had ready to take us to the event. At one point, some cordial started spilling out of the bottles, but they stayed calm in the face of a slightly grumpy driver, cleaned up and resolved the problem by themselves. During service, they chatted to people, served food and drinks and confidently dealt with questions about ingredients and dietary requirements. Knowing how to work with people, communicate, solve problems and stay calm when things get busy is something that many people spend months or years getting their heads around, but these girls were naturals.
The canapé table was packed with colour and flavour, including parsnip pakora, falafel with zhoug, kale pastries, sausage rolls and sweet potato fritters. The parsnip pakora was particularly special because the girls had actually helped make it earlier that day. So they got to see the whole process, from preparing the food in our Craigmillar kitchen to serving it to guests at the City Art Centre that evening.
There was plenty for the sweet-toothed guests too: mincemeat brownies, jam and peanut butter traybake, and lemon and blueberry sponge. We made homemade kombucha, strawberry and lime cordial, and orange and fennel cordial. The strawberry cordial was a particular hit. We mixed it with sparkling water to make it extra special, and its brilliant pink colour made it pretty irresistible. The kombucha also attracted quite a bit of attention. One guest told us it was their first time trying it and that they absolutely loved it, which is always nice to hear when you’ve introduced someone to something new.
The food went fast!
The evening itself was a wonderful celebration of Sandra’s life and work, much of which had a positive impact on young people growing up in poverty. There was spoken word, interpretative dance and a series of incredibly personal reflections. It was hard not to think about the importance of giving people the chance to be seen, heard and involved.
Thank you so much to Craigmillar Now for inviting us along to this brilliant event!
We are so proud of what these girls have achieved, and it was wonderful to attend this event with them. Their first paid hospitality job might have started with making pakora in our Craigmillar kitchen, but by the end of the evening they had catered for 70 people, navigated a busy event, met new people and represented Edinburgh Food Social with confidence.
And, fittingly, they finished the evening by thinking about someone else.
There were a few sausage rolls left over and, completely unprompted, the girls suggested that we hand them out to the people sitting outside the back entrance to Waverley Station, asking for spare change.
If you know a young person who is interested in cooking, we run various classes and youth clubs during the school holidays. It’s a great starting point for exploring and nurturing a hobby, and perhaps even the beginning of a career in food.
