Kitchen Archives — The Common Table

still from the documentary The Edible Indian by Cass Gardiner showing a Native American family sharing a meal in a forest

The Good Life

10. July 2025
20 minute read

First Nations filmmaker and curator Cass Gardiner talks to The Common Table about stewardship, reciprocity, the bittersweet aspect of "home", and how she uses food to open a window for non-Native people into her world and community.

Water Buffalo herd wallowing in hot springs

The Capacity to Evoke

17. February 2025
10 minute read

Food and food systems are emerging as a vital focus of investigative cultural practice. The Common Table talked to curator Meriç Öner, former Director of Salt in Istanbul, who brings her unique perspective to the intersection of food, culture and art.

Territorial Stomachs & Other Future Foodscapes

12. December 2024
4 minute read

The Future Foodscapes Research Unit rethinks the future of the planetary food system through research and speculative projects, one of which explores the viewpoint of the kitchen as an externalised stomach.

Gut Feeling

21. November 2024
9 minute read

Dr Vanessa Kimbell is a sourdough baker. educator and food activist. She talks to The Common Table about her very personal healing journey with sourdough, which led to her mission to change systems in the food industry.

Inside Story: Food Behind Bars

19. October 2024
15 minute read

Chef Natalia Middleton from the non-profit Food Behind Bars talks about about control, mental health, monopolies in the British prison system and creating change through food.

Essentially Local Slippurinn

4. September 2024
8 minute read

Chef Gísli Matt’s restaurant Slippurinn is on a tiny Icelandic island buffeted by trade winds in the middle of the Atlantic. We discussed decolonising island cuisine and whether “local fine dining” is an oxymoron or an answer.

Serendipity and Gastrophysics

28. August 2024
13 minute read

Professor Charles Spence is an experimental psychologist who popularised the term gastrophysics. The Common Table talked to him about serendipitous encounters and food that makes you cry.

Waste Not

7. November 2023
8 minute read

Understanding and addressing food waste is a collective process that goes beyond the kitchen. Writer and editor LinYee Yuan looks at some fine dining pioneers working to turn a distasteful subject into a revelatory and inspiring source to awaken both tastebuds and the imagination.

With Reverence

24. July 2023
7 minute read

"When we eat certain foods, understand where they come from and all the nuances that make them what they are, we become active participants in their survival." An essay by food writer Nicholas Gill.