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