Food For Everyone x Correa Table

Lately we, along with many others, have become enchanted by this dynamic organisation that sits at a very delicious intersection of food, art, culture and community. Started as a fundraising project at Founder Gemma Leslie’s kitchen table in 2020, Food For Everyone (FFE) turns recipes into collectable artworks. Each piece is a collaboration between a chef and an artist, who transforms one of the chef’s recipes into an artwork. Participating chefs (of some of Australia’s most loved dining spots!) include high profile names like Rick Stein, Josh Niland (of Saint Peter), Julia Busuttil Nishimura and Maggie Beer, whilst artists include Ken Done, Piero Clemente Garreffa, Alice Oehr, and the multi-talented Gemma Leslie herself! Sweetening each collaboration is the fact that each artwork sold also donates the equivalent of 10 meals to SecondBite to help feed people in need. This month, FFE ventures outside, and our Correa Table proved the perfect table to gather around and celebrate the last of the warm weather. Read on for a Q&A with Gemma.

How does the Correa Table – which invites people to gather around it in a non-hierarchical way – align with the concept of the ‘anti-host’?

The anti-host doesn’t sit at the head of the table. There is no head of the table.

That’s what the Correa Table does so well. It takes away the idea that someone is in charge. People move, sit where they want, stand, come and go.

Hosting has become a bit of a ‘thing’. Perfect tables, perfect menus. I’ve never really related to that. When people come over to mine, they leave full and like they’ve had a proper catch up. And … maybe a bit smokey from the pizza oven.

The anti-host concept is the most approachable way to gather. Less dinner party, more people in the kitchen. More helping, more chaos. That’s where the good stuff happens.

How does the social aspect of eating elevate and nourish our wellbeing?

You actually talk! It’s important for us to be together, because that’s kind of the whole point. Sitting around a table with people you love, eating something simple, is usually enough. It puts things back in place. That’s living well to me!

Everything else can wait …. And it’s one of the only times no one’s on their phone. Which probably says everything.

How can we integrate this into our lives more? How can dining outside be enjoyed throughout the seasons – particularly in Australia’s colder southern climates?

Lower the bar – it doesn’t need to be a full production. A bowl of pasta, a roast chook, a bottle of something good. Take it outside. That’s enough.

In winter, lean into it. Blankets, coats, a slightly chaotic fire situation. Big pots of things. Wine that makes you forget it’s cold.

Australians are quite good at pretending it’s summer when it’s absolutely not. I think we should keep doing that!!!