Editor’s Note: This post was created from the recording of an interview which was part of the community consultation, the CHI’26 Storyfest 22-24 Sept 2026 in the Moray Art Centre (MAC).

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My husband Bruno and I did the Essence of the Arts program here in the Park.

Before working in education, I was a kitchen focaliser for about four years. I took on that role because my children were small—around six, and ten—so after school they could come into the kitchen and be with mom. The Community Centre (CC) became like a second home to us.

I was there during the transformation from the old kitchen to the new kitchen while Lauren was still the focaliser. I lived through that whole process. We were cooking and working in conditions with plastic sheets everywhere, but we kept going. Later, Katharina Brocke and I were co-focalising. I remember Katharina was so unhappy with the way the new tiles were laid down because they weren’t even—she made such a fuss that they had to take them all out and lay them down properly. It was a grand transformation, but a lot of work.

I used to make seitan, which you have to prepare the evening before. There was one person who really liked it, but most people at that time preferred rich, creamy food with cheese, so seitan wasn’t always as popular. To make it, you start the evening before by mixing a strong bread dough with high-gluten flour. You wash the dough ball over and over in water. You keep the washing water—it’s very nutritious, so you can make a drink with it or give it to the plants. Once it’s fully washed, you’re left with pure gluten, which you can use to make steaks or many other things.

What I did—which I learned from a Sicilian macrobiotic cook—was to roll it into small pieces and put them in hot oil so they puff up. They look beautiful at that stage. After placing them on absorbent paper, you submerge them in a hot marinade of soy sauce, brown rice vinegar, and spices. Once they soak that up and break down their structure, they become wonderful and very edible.

I’m the kind of person who prefers to stay a bit in the background. For example, on Friday dinners, Ian Turnbull, our buyer—we had a wonderful connection and used to sing Taizé in the morning — would sometimes offer to let me lead the food blessing, but I didn’t want to. I can perform when I’m doing theater, but I don’t like stepping into the foreground like that during meals.

Compost area photo Adriana BijmanInstead, one of my favorite things to do in the background was cleaning the grease trap and the compost bins that came back from Cluny. The grease trap was an ugly-smelling little hole, and the bins were very smelly too. I decided that every morning after the early meditation from six to seven, I would come in, take a bin, and clean it. Because I had just meditated, I was full of love, which helped me overcome the smell.

Nobody else wanted to do that job, which is why it attracted me—it allowed me to work in the quiet. I cleaned them using only water, but I loved doing it. I had the feeling I was looking after an old person. Since I wasn’t there to care for my own mother or father at the time, caring for this old part of the kitchen filled that place for me, and it did me a lot of good.