Updates
#TATI- we have been busy cooking up an array of #Banglafoodwithatwist. Following the successful #foodtasting event in June, #TATI members in July went on to do cooking classes in a commercial kitchen setting with a professional trainer. Thanks to @IdeaStore, ShadwellCentre & @FarukMiah The learning in the #commercialkitchensetting was closely followed by attending further training to obtain Level 2 CIEH Certificate in Food Safety by 20 members! Extremely proud of the #TATI members and what they have achieved in this short time. In October, #TATI has been busy putting it in practice. How? Well we are now taking orders for external catering, planning our market stall / pop-up and supper club in/ around Brick Lane and Aldgate. #TATI also took time to do Food Memory workshop with @LoughboroughUniversity @MigrantMemoryPostColonial project. Most recently, we supported ATeamArts to celebrate #40thAnniversary with @TowerHamletsEvent. This was also celebrating #TATI's 1st #cateredevent. #Handmade #Homemade #Nankathai- #Bangla #Shortbread. Truly delicious. Must try. If you want this and more contact #TATI.
TATI UPDATE: TATI started its workshops in April 2019 with 4 workshops and over over 20 women. The workshops developed a menu to test and key design concepts for the space. We had wonderful help from Momtaz Begum who developed the sessions, along with Architect Abu Siddiki and PARAA Architecture & Design Studio, Bangladesh and photographer Chloe Rosser who documented the sessions. Also huge thanks to Kobi Nazrul and Brady Centre for accommodating the workshops. We followed up the workshops with inviting people to a 'taster' session of the menu developed in the workshops at #Trampery #Republic. The women made some wonderful food, see image. And we had great response from those who were invited to the event. We had an average score of 4.5 out of 5. comments included, 'When are you opening?' / 'The food was very tasty. Not like I have tasted before.' / 'It was a wonderful set up. Felt very comfortable. The women greeted us with warmth and talked about the food'. We could not have got greater encouragement. With such positive feedback, TATI had over 16 women who signed up to do Stage 2: Basic Cookery Skills in a Commercial Kitchen at Shadwell Centre, part of Tower Hamlets Idea Store. We had the wonderful Lois who over 6 sessions have taken the women on a journey of making savoury Choux pastry to Thai fish cake burger and salad alongside learning to be in and cook in a professional kitchen for the public. We have explored food from many countries and a variety of cooking skills alongside health, hygiene and safety issues. Stage 3: Pop up kitchen - we cook and serve to the public. A chance to say thank you to all and to get feedback from all our existing and new supporters and other well wishers. Before we do that in late September / early October, TATI will be ensuring the women participants have had the opportunity to obtain Level 2 Food Safety in Catering certificate. TATI is progressing and building on the strengths of the women. Your continual support is appreciated and needed. If you wan to volunteer with TATI. If you want to invest in TATI. Please contact us.
Looking forward to meeting up with all the women to explore design of the cafe space and developing the menu. We will also have the lovely #MomtazBegumHussain of @the_craftcafe facilitating the session and Abu Siddiki #architect working with workshop participants on #designing of the cafe. Can't wait. We continue to be supported by Mayor of London Spacehive City of London Corporation: City View Tower Hamlets Council and over 114 individuals. Thanks to all.
March 2019 has been a great time for TATI. We started with #IWD on 7th March @ #St Hilda's East Centre followed by event organised by #MohilaOngonAssociation. on 8th March attended discussion session organised by #TheAldgatePartnership followed by celebrations with #TowerHamletsHomes. Saturday 9th worked with women at #SpitalfieldsCityFarm to make chutneys from apples. Since then we have continued to meet women in community groups, schools, food making workshops all around the borough. TATI has organised workshops to explore further 'food culture' and the initial concepts of designs of the cafe. Do you: • Live in Tower Hamlets? • Bangladeshi woman aged 25+? • Enjoy cooking? Making things? • Have 2 hours (10am-12:00pm) to give? Then join us on Monday 1st April – Kobi Nazrul Centre. Other workshop dates are: Tuesday 2nd & 23rd April and Monday 29th April. Limited spaces please contact: [email protected] to reserve your place. Bring your favourite dish to share.
In 2018 we were successful, with your help, in raising funds through the Spacehive crowdfunding platform. We are supported by the Mayor of London, Tower Hamlets Town Centre Team and City of London Corporation and 114 other individuals. Oitij-jo Collective thanks all our supporters. We will be carrying out workshops to test the Concept with women starting in March 2019. The sessions will include: • Recipe & Design – food & design • Does this taste right? – menu development in a professional kitchen • Pop up breakfast/ lunch/ dinner – testing the menu with the public At the end we aim to publish a book of fine recipes and designs for the café. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please get in touch with Oitij-jo on: [email protected].
We at OITIJ-JO are celebrating International Women's Day with our friends at The Aldgate Partnership. Bring your biggest hat to this event! Come. Talk to OITIJ-JO about our upcoming project: TATI: Women Led Community Arts Cafe. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/international-womens-day-gue… 8 March 2019 - 12:30 – 13:30. General Assembly. The Relay Building, 114 Whitechapel High Street, London.
The simple idea of a ‘community cafe’, serving Bengali dishes prepared from traditional domestic recipes and served with the warm hospitality so characteristic of this region in south Asia, is attractive indeed! We at Oitij-jo Collective believed in it. And, by the end of an exciting crowdfunding campaign in November last year, so did 117 backers – including the Mayor of London, Tower Hamlets Town Centres Team and the Aldgate Partnership. A grand total of £13,317 was raised by our backers; to every one of them, we are sincerely grateful! With your help, we plan to bring a little colourful – and tasteful – variety to the tables of Brick Lane, create opportunities for gifted women to share their culinary expertise and develop skills needed for rewarding work in catering, and to promote appreciation of Bengali artistry in the cosmopolitan world of east London’s Brick Lane. You have told us the ‘inspiration’ is good! Now, following discussions with the Mayor of London’s Crowdfund Team, we can start on the ‘perspiration’ – the systematic hard work that alone will bring this ‘community cafe’ to reality. In the initial stages, we will test the concept in practical terms – designing appropriate spaces for kitchens and clientele, developing an initial menu, assessing staff needs, identifying skills and preparing training for the women who will lead in the kitchen, and settling upon recruitment activities. Throughout, we will develop costings in detail, all of which will be subjected to objective professional and commercial scrutiny; we know that the ‘community cafe’ must be a sound ‘business’ to survive and succeed. As we collect and consider dishes for possible inclusion in our menu, we will give critical attention to the sourcing of ingredients – where they are to be found, their health-related qualities, and how environmentally-sustainable and sensitive they are. And we will gather together the best of them for publication, to give us a supplementary income and an early ‘identity’ in London’s highly competitive world of exquisite dining. We have been speaking to Mayor of London’s team at City Hall and to Spacehive and they are fully supportive of TATI’s approach going forward. At intervals during this work, we will report on progress to you all – our valued and appreciated partners. We look forward to your continued support! If you have any questions or concerns about this, please get in touch with Oitij-jo on: [email protected] or Spacehive on: [email protected] .
