“cooking with plants is like creating a poem of flavours and colours”

In March, I joined Yallah Coffee team and started to work in the kitchen alongside Rebekah Rose, who sets up the menu in the café, offering a selection of plant based, seasonal and local products. Today, Becky shares her inspiring vision on food, reflecting on her experiences, intentions and values.

1. I would like to start this conversation by getting a sense of what is your relationship to food and cooking?

My relationship to food and cooking has shifted a lot over the years, especially as I have grown into myself and found what makes me happy. My love for what I do is strongly rooted within my admiration for plants. I view them as the language of the Earth, and cooking with plants is like creating a poem of flavours and colours. Cooking and food provides us not only with a reason to connect to each other, but also to connect with our local lands and community through eating seasonally and buying from local producers.   

2. You have a background in fashion, how do you use your engagement in sustainability and single origin products in your current role at Yallah?

Within fashion, my interest was always how the industry can benefit the farmers and producers that create fabrics. Understanding why traceability within the supply chain is essential for sustainability was a key takeaway from fashion that I can apply to my role at Yallah. As without traceability, businesses cannot know who is producing the products, and how it is done, and therefore can not ensure that it is done in the most balanced way possible. Working directly with suppliers is something that I try and do as much as possible within the cafe, specifically so that sustainability and quality can be at the forefront of all food decisions made. This also ensures that the menu is seasonal, staying harmonious to what is being produced locally. 

3. How your interest in cooking grew so you thought you would cook for others and design dishes and menus?

My interest in cooking grew very quickly over just a few years. I have not always been that interested in cooking... eating yes, but cooking for others, not so much. I always respected the art of cooking and how it brought people together, but up until 2 or 3 years ago, I didn’t really think I could cook! This changed when I started to make an effort for other people, and when my interest in plants and foraging grew. Then something switched in my mind and I understood it as an intuitive practice that I could learn to improve my connection to. I sometimes now find myself getting into a bit of a flowstate with cooking. It can be magic! 

4. You are self taught, what is your relation to learning ?

I very much learn by watching and learning by doing! I learn from making mistakes or being taught someone else's mistakes so I understand why something does not work. I have a hands-on approach to learning cooking, but I also find a lot of value in reading recipes and understanding the timings and the logic behind cooking ingredients in a specific order. 

5. How are your experiences in travelling an integral part in your inspirations and visions of cooking and sharing meals?

Travelling has absolutely played an integral part in how I cook and where my inspirations come from. On one of my first travelling experiences, I was in Morocco and a local family taught me how to traditionally cook a tagine. We all sat around the pot, and shared this beautiful moment of connection through eating this food together. From this experience, I learned a new technique and truly felt how food brings all people together. Travelling India taught me a lot about cooking and sharing, especially about flavours and how many different things you can create from the same ingredients. I very often use memories of specific meals that I have eaten in the past as inspiration when creating new dishes at the cafe and try to recreate the feeling I had when trying it for the first time. It is also fun merging different memories together to create something that reflects the essence from different periods of my life. 

6. The menu at Yallah is seasonal and mainly plant based. How do you create such a menu, what are the challenges (positive and negative)?

The way that I create the menu is different every time. Sometimes there's a particular dish I wish to recreate, like something I have eaten in the past. Other times there is a particular ingredient that I really want to use, so I imagine the dish around the ingredient. I also like being given a brief to work around, and I try my best to put my own spin on it to surprise people and create something different. A big challenge is the supply of ingredients. I have to work within the bounds of what local producers and distributors can offer. This is as well as the budget of the cafe, and the prices we are aiming to cost the food at. But this can be fun! It just means I try not to use ingredients with a high mileage and try to find local alternatives (except for spices and citrus, you can’t get around these and I think they are so worth the compromise!). A positive is that you find yourself with more connection to the land and to the seasons. It is nice to feel more harmonious with what the planet is offering you, rather than what you want to demand from it. Ingredients in season are also often noticeably higher in quality and have more intense flavour. This alone is a good enough reason to cook seasonally!

7. There are lots of initiatives in younger generations to increase awareness of the importance of growing and sourcing food. How do you think Yallah reflects this movement and can inspire others?

With using local and organic ingredients, yes I do hope that it reflects this movement. I think we could talk about it more, but it's hard to find that balance. And as a specialty coffee shop, letting the coffee shine is our biggest priority, then the food follows suit.

8. How do you think your role can take part in the need to become resilient and care for others and the planet? 

Food has such an integral part to play in sustaining the planet. It can either cause harm, or it can offer a solution. And although Yallah is just a small cafe, I put a lot of thought into the ingredients and where they come from. Direct trade is the ultimate goal. Knowing where and how things are produced is the first step, then you can begin to understand the impact that is being created as a result. 

I do think I can do better, but I understand that I must cater for a specific audience and work around that. Having said that, on quite a few occasions customers have been very surprised at how much they have enjoyed a vegetarian meal, and have left the cafe with a shifted view of how a meat-free dish can actually be very tasty! It is wonderful when this happens, and in this respect, I do feel that making imaginative vegetarian dishes plays a role in opening up people to eat in a more environmentally conscious way.  

9. How do you see yourself evolving in your practice? 

I have now done a few supper clubs and this really is how I see myself progressing. I have loved every aspect of doing these, from designing the menu, picking the ingredients in the morning, to plating up and making everything look beautiful. It is such a surreal and powerful experience when it all comes together and everyone is eating your food! I also wish to travel with this skill. I acknowledge how much travelling and eating from different cultures teaches me about cooking and flavour and I can see myself going on travelling trips specifically to immerse myself in the food of that country. How fun! I want to keep practicing my skill of cooking and advancing my ability to combine flavours in my head and then bring that to life.

10. What are you grateful for today ?

I am grateful for this fabulous job where I am free to cook whatever I wish, as long as it reflects the values of Yallah, of which are very harmonious with my own. This brings me such joy. And having the best team that sees such value in everything that we do. I am also grateful to be living in such a beautiful part of the country where we can connect with the land and the sea so effortlessly. Where we can see the horizon, watch the sunrise and the sunset in the same day, and where even when it is stormy and grey, it is still so beautiful!