The turquoise chain continues outside the Arsenal and in the middle of the people eating and chatting, you can suddenly see some smoke…don’t worry, it’s the KITCHAIN barbecue! As for the indoor cooking units you have at your disposal two cutting boards, a salad bowl, two knives and some of the basic ingredients – salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, onion and garlic - coal and a fire lighter box. Remember that in this KITCHAIN option you have access to water but you don’t have access to cooking plates, so we suggest a salad or grilled vegetables to garnish your barbecue!

We would like to dedicate the following post to the KITCHAIN-feel-like-home elements: the cooking units! The 2009 layout has two indoor cooking units, equipped with a sink and an electric double cooking plate and one outdoor version with a big grill. Let’s start with the indoor cooking units: when you arrive there with your basket full of ingredients you have at your disposal a wok, a medium pan, a colander, two cutting boards, a salad bowl, two knives, cookware and some of the basic ingredients – salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, onion, garlic, soya, curry, tomato sauce, harissa. Some notes to make your Do-it-yourself experience 100% efficient: be careful with the number of your guests (we suggest max. 8) and the preparation of the ingredients (you only have 2 plates). Only cold water available but sponge, soap and rubbish bin to wash and clean!

After a few hours of admittedly very relaxed cooking I will stop creating and start reporting. Here we are at Belluard/Bollwerk festival. I have the honour once more to accompany Wam Kat (activist and political chef extraordinnair) on his mission to make the world a better place with, guess what- cooking! We met Benedetta and Antonio in November 08 when some of the “competitors” for the kitchen contest got invited to Fribourg to discuss our respective proposals. We had great conversations, white wine and cheese fondue. What can I say: Antonio and Benedetta made it and they did an amazing job. Functional and inviting the turquoise “kitchain” winds like a snake through the medieval structure of the Belluard and onto the street outside. Three individual cooking stations invite guests (who think they can do better then Wam or the chefs of the 4vent restaurant) to spoil their friends with self made dinner. Ingredients can be bought on site (to wholesale prices and good quality). A fine example of how successful design provides a social functionality. The “kitchain” was packed last night and I´m sure it will be packed again tonight. Wam will give a talk later on on his work and I want to thank Belluard at this point for inviting us as special guests and to provide a plattform for some of our thoughts on cooking and politics. What exactly I mean by that can be found at other places on the web and of course in Wam´s book “24 Rezepte zur kulinarischen Weltverbesserung” available in German from orange-press. But then again just looking at “kitchain” these subjects become obvious really, don´t they. It would be great if we could continue our many discussions on the subject later in a bit more public setting. For myself I´m sure that exploring cooking and kitchens practically, artistically and theoretically will be a journey I´m only at the beginning. These themes are, as we say in German, “noch lange nicht gegessen” (“far from being eaten up”). Now the room starts to fill with the most extraordninary aromas: Maite and his crew perpared pike in a crust of sea salt, Wam made couscous with vegetables (tested in political rallys - for thousands!) and right next to me some guests are frying something, that smells just…. well I´ll have to go and check it out! Enjoy your meals folks!

Stay hungry, Heiks Heiko Fischer

Every DIY cooking experience starts in the same way. Benedetta check the list of ingredients and prepare a basket with all the vegetables, meat, spices that people required via internet. Then they go to their cooking spot doing their magic. As we always stay around in the space we can assure you that we have seen and smell real gourmet meals. It’s incredible what people can do with one wok, one pan and two fire points! Today it was, definetely, the day of the lamb. Seventeen more pieces for a new group. They used the indoor kitchen units to prepare a meal for six.

LRO

We noticed that until now we never talked about the outdoor Do-It-Yourself option. It’s of course a barbacue incorporated in the turquoise chain. Specially made for the KITCHAIN, it’s functioning between 18H00 and 22H00 for everyone who desire to use it. Today we had a reservation for seven. Seventeen pieces of lamb went in the grill.

Fribourg, like the majority of medieval cities, is full of secret spaces. Leftovers of centuries of overlap urban constructions. Yesterday morning we meet one of these spaces by the hand of Marc, an artist of the city that we meet on a Do-It-Yourself dinner. He invited us to go visit his “kingdom” and have breakfast with him. We went and discover a small wild garden filled of edible and medical plants. He knew all of them by name and gave us a lesson about the qualities and how to use them. The pleasant breakfast ended with us tasting several flowers with butter and bread. Some were sweet, other started smooth and then getting stronger after some time. It was a colorful gastronomical experience. Our KITCHAIN experience is made also of these collateral episodes!

LRO & Benedetta

Monday night KITCHAIN had a different evening. The Festival closed to the public and celebrated the volunteers, staff and artists that made the 2009 Belluard Bollwerk edition possible. All this community landed at the KITCHAIN to taste a special dinner cooked by the Festival Friends. A moment to get to know everyone, relaxing and enjoying. Tuesday the Festival will be back on the road with concerts, talks and many other happenings. Stay connected!

LRO

Yesterday I ate at the KITCHAIN. Benedetta cook for us, we were 8 people chatting, eating and drinking wine along the turquoise channel. A lovely Sunday evening, the atmosphere was quiet after 3 days of festivities. The space is really cosy between the lounge space in the middle and the blue tables. The room is huge, there is space for everyone. It’s amazing to have a lit’kitchen inside the main kitchain and to cook as if you’re at home. What I really like is the tap coming from the ceiling and hanging above the silver sink. We had orecchiette ai broccoli, an italian speciality from Benedetta great-grandmother. The trick is to cook the pasta with the brocolis in the same pan, then they have the taste of the vegetables, it was delicious. She was a bit worrying that it’s not enough salty, that make her adorable, she is always making her best for having everything perfect and everyone feeling good. Antònio show me his projects from his studio MOOV and we chat about being independant, very inspiring… Then we go to see “Die Lustige Witwe” and drink beers after that, talking about Michael Jackson ghost in the chalet were I live…

Clara Ouchène

LRO

In our second day of KITCHAIN, the first official day of Do-it-yourself & Ready-made system, we already have some nice things to share with you! A group arrived at 18 o’clock, they have reserved for Do-it-yourself, in the minimarket I was ready to give them the ingredients they asked for but they immediately started to talk with each other with a quite confused expression in their eyes…I thought…maybe they want to cook something else…but suddenly they told me “We thought that we choose they ingredients and that you cook for us!”…well…we discovered a third option: the Do-it-yourself + Ready-made!!! We also had our first improvised Do-it-yourself client. He arrived at the KITCHAIN, all by himself and he wanted to cook! So, he choose the ingredients, he went to a cooking unit and while he was cooking he made some friends! He arrived alone and he left with company, so our eating and gathering space is really working!

Benedetta