Sambal Workshop
Sambal – that fresh, hot, chilli staple of southern and Southeast Asian cooking. You might expect a sambal-making workshop to be strictly culinary, but that would ignore all the storied and cultural layers of the condiment.
Jamie Lewis is a performance artist who draws on her Singaporean-Eurasian heritage to create work centred around stories, conversation and food. Her sambal-making workshop delves into her family traditions around spicy sambal belacan, and hopefully, stories from her guests.
“Food being a vehicle for conversation and for people to meet and exchange stories and share space,” explains Lewis.
“Food allows people to be intimate quickly.”
Workshop attendees will make sambal and cook with Lewis, while she talks about family recipes and memories associated with home-style Singaporean cooking, where sambal belacan is a mainstay.
“It’s such an important staple. It’s one of those things which is always in the fridge. So for me, holding on to these recipes and making it myself is a kind of ownership around that, saying: this is my household now, I have my recipe now and I have my variations.”
After an afternoon of cooking and good conversation, participants share a meal together at the Accomplice residency space.
What to expect from this novel approach to a cooking class?
“You will find yourself in quite an intimate sort of space, where you can participate as much as you want to and share as much as you want to, or you can be quiet and listen,” says Lewis.
Sat 17 & Sun 24 Jun | 3-6pm | Accomplice, Coconut Grove
