Kate Allen

I wouldn’t exactly label myself a ‘food activist’, yet I believe no-one should go to sleep hungry, and that a meal tastes infinitely better when your table is shared.


I would describe myself as a stirrer of pots, and a bit of a food alchemist – experimenting with sauces, specialist diets, fermenting and harnessing microbes for flavour and gut health, local and seasonal ingredients – and cooking with basic kit in field kitchens.


I have cooked for thousands in the refugee camps of Europe, for hundreds on one-off events, for many on retreat, in little 15 cover quirky cafes, and as a specialist diet chef making tailored meals for one in their own homes. I also teach basic kitchen and chef skills on a programme that gives unemployed people a CV that will attract the eye of any catering company, and am currently in the process of starting up a free food kitchen, so anyone in food poverty can come and have a slap up meal in a café with their family.


My favourite book as a child was ‘Cooking is a game you can eat’ by Faye Maschler, and I look forward to sharing that same playful philosophy with everyone I share a kitchen with.
I found meditation at 19 and began a lifelong practice, and I see our relationship with food – its provenance, how it is prepared and served, and energetics – as an integral part of our daily sadhana.