Agency Archives — The Common Table

Photo © Rachel Tan, courtesy Ivan Brehm & Nouri restaurant

Remove the Arbiters of Taste

1. May 2026
14 minute read

Michelin-starred chef Ivan Brehm worked at Per Se, Mugaritz, and The Fat Duck, before opening his own restaurant, Nouri, in Singapore in 2017. He shares his thoughts about artifice, agency, and the unsustainable game fine dining has become.

Sheila Dillon: Food is Political

14. April 2026
14 minute read

BBC Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon has spent four decades establishing food as an important, newsworthy subject and breaking big political stories through the lens of food.

Sowing Seeds of Hope in Ukraine

28. March 2026
10 minute read

We asked Yuliya Stefanyuk, the World Central Kitchen's Response Director in Ukraine, about WCK's new project distributing of seeds to help those affected by the war grow their own food and rebuild resilience.

Being Human in the ‘House that Pigs built’

20. March 2026
5 minute read

Cooking Sections' new exhibition about intensive pig farming at Denmark's MAPS Museum doesn't just reveal what industrial farming does to a landscape and its people, it also invites them to fight back.

b/w photo of man walking in a street 1970s

BEANS; PEAS NUTS. AND SITTING

9. March 2026
7 minute read

Stanley Green campaigned on a corner of Oxford Street in London between 1968 and 1993. Sophie Lovell relates a strange story about diets, moral commitment, sitting and lust that may also be a lesson in resilience.

The Last Harvest

2. March 2026
4 minute read

Dr Debal Deb and The Last Harvest is a documentary about one man's decades-long battle to rescue India's indigenous rice diversity from oblivion. Journalist Dan Saladino visits Basudha Farm in Odisha, to learn about how he is building a sustainable legacy.

The Burnt Chef Revolution

23. February 2026
12 minute read

Kris Hall is the founder of The Burnt Chef Project, an internationally networked organisation helping people in the hospitality industry with their mental health, whilst offering training and counselling to create healthier workplaces. An interview by Ševko Topčić.

a squash bee sleeping in a squash flower

The Honey Merchant

29. January 2026
11 minute read

Diego Contreras is a biologist and honey expert from the uniquely biodiverse region of Oaxaca. His project Nunduve aims to educate consumers about honey's origins and environmental issues, rather than just its flavours and uses.

Transparent Tuna

2. October 2025
11 minute read

William Harris talks to Cynthia Asaf of Pacifical about using digital traceability to improve transparency in the Pacific tuna supply chain and why it's a game-changer for the fishing industry.