This month’s spotlight article will focus on a project run by our member Pembroke House, who run Walworth Living Room and the Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model.

Last month we went to a brilliant event celebrating the completion of the Walworth Chef Pilot project. This was a project run at Walworth Living Room as a part of the Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model. The celebration was a great afternoon where we learnt all about the project, received some cooking demonstrations and sampled some of the chefs’ delicious cooking!

The pilot ran between December 2024 and June 2025, with an aim to support local food businesses/chefs in Walworth to strengthen and refine their business ideas. It begun with one-to-one conversations with 5 local chefs and businesses, to identify their opportunities and challenges. Learning sessions were then designed and delivered around these opportunity areas.

One learning session that developed from the initial conversations was a ‘cooking exchange’. The cooking exchange involved two chefs on the project swapping their cooking skills, having each identified an area they would like to improve on. Samar, an Algerian chef with experience cooking delicious vegetarian Arabic dishes, wanted to improve her baking skills, whilst Ladi, a Colombian chef with baking expertise, wanted to learn more vegetarian recipes. So, the two swapped recipes and tips!

Other learning sessions included ‘defining your business idea’, ‘recipe costing’, ‘recipe and catering calculator’ and a business card design session in collaboration with an illustrator.

This pilot was part of a larger ongoing project, the Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model. This project has a vision to engage the local neighbour in transforming the local food system, focusing on themes of improving food security, building food-based communities, partnerships, and networks, and creating and keeping wealth within Walworth. You can find out more about the Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model, including ways you can get involved, by visiting their website: https://www.neighbourhoodfoodmodel.org/

A huge well done to all the chefs and businesses that took part, to the Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model Team and to Isabela Astorquiza for this successful pilot and celebration event!

The chefs/businesses who took part in the pilot were: Samar’s Kitchen, Kaieteur Kitchen, Los Chamos, Mama Kam Creates, and Amigos Restaurant. You can find their details on our Southwark Freelance Chefs/Catering list.