Joshna Maharaj, the Celebrity Chef from The Stop (frequently featured on the Gill Deacon Show), has a clear philosophy on cooking that’s easily summed up: Get Back Into The Kitchen! “It’s dangerous that people don’t know how to cook!” While many people think of cooking as being ‘shackled’ to chores in a kitchen, it’s a false image, she says. “If you don’t cook, you’re cutting yourself off from a very basic life source.” The most important message Joshna could impart is “COOKING IS EASY. It takes no crazy elevated skills! Just patience, and a willingness to fail.”

The Stop’s programs mean that Joshna cooks lunch for 150 people twice a week, sometimes with no more fore-knowledge of what she will be cooking than 3 hours lead time, depending on what donations come in, though 24 hours is more the norm. There are also the 40 or so people she cooks with in the community kitchen programs throughout the week, too. “My philosophy of cooking is very ‘give a man a fish/teach him how to fish’ kind of thing. I find my work at The Stop way more rewarding than merely serving meals in a restaurant. I Love cooking for people.” She’d like to see more Chefs taking a leadership role to connect themselves to Community Food Security issues (more on those in the next issue). Joshna will be bringing her considerable talents back to the market for more Shop The Market and Cook With The Chef demonstrations on Sept 8th, 15th, and 22nd.