Flow & Flatbread
Research class by Charlotte Koopman and guests
The vantage point of the research will be the kitchen and the larder from where the participants will be providing a daily lunch for all master students, plus the odd unexpected guest.
There will be no time for rehearsal, we will be winging it*
Central to the kitchen will be the making of flatbreads, a multitude of breads different from each other but always relatively thin. Their origin is ancient and diverse and they were given beautiful names such as Injera Anjero Lahoh Barbari Crescentina Rumali (handkerchief) Roti Khobz Eldar (Home Bread) Sangak (Pebbles).
Because of the recent sourdough trend much more people here today are baking bread. Unfortunately, cereals that are good to grow against monoculture, highly nutritious and often bee-friendly, are not suitable for the airy sourdough loaf everybody wants. Flat breads can be obtained from cereals other than wheat, from pseudo cereals or legumes. They do not necessarily require an oven to be baked, as they can be cooked covered in sand and embers or on a griddle over fire. They can serve as a plate and as a spoon/fork. They can be pancake-like, leavened or unleavened.
To accompany our investigation into flatbreads there will be a larder** and its catalogue/ users manual which will contain foraged ingredients and thoughts to cook with, gathered in the days between today and the beginning of October.
During the week we will remix, chop up, blend together and rewrite this content and serve lunch + reprint the results.
*“Winging it” should not be mistaken for a lack of effort. It is, ideally, a state of mind in which one is fully present and engaged, with a sense of respect for the natural rhythms and flow of life. Instead of aiming at control, the situation is handled with intuition and improvisation, with a foundation of previous practise and experience.
This week, the direction taken will be a result of the skills and appetites of our formation.
**If you want to take part in the foraging/ cooking up of foods for the larder, please send a mail to charlotte@otark.be and you will receive alerts now and then.
Everybody is welcome, this activity is not limited to students that participate in the ‘Flow and Flatbread’ research class and is an entirely voluntary activity.
Due to the set time of our daily lunch during the research week your presence at the kitchen willbe required from 8:00 to 15:00.
This session does not include doing the after lunch dishes.
Charlotte Koopman
Charlotte Koopman founded, together with Hadas Cna’ani, in 2009 a kitchen-collective named Otark. Otark cooks in various contexts and with varying line-ups responding to film, sound, words, the weather. Otark has a strong preference for Handwork / Close-ups (the near) / Off-beat (the far-out) / Slow-mo / Slapstick / Roots and Leaves and works according to the vershki i koreshki principle: foundation versus the way the wind blows, home-cooking on the move, and- as cooks do- works within a framework of a timeline, rhythm, repetition, seasonality and impermanence.
charlottekoopman@icloud.com
(image: research class by Charlotte Koopman, October 2022, photo by Wannes Cré)
>> This research class is part of the Research Week during the annual research festival ARTICULATE.