Join us at the Correa Table, where Food For Everyone’s Gemma Leslie celebrates the easy enjoyment of outdoor dining, inspired by the concept of the ‘anti-host’ that invites guests to roll up their sleeves and get involved.
Our Creative Director Susan Tait with Gemma Leslie of Food For Everyone.
For just over a month we’re celebrating outdoor dining with our friends at Food For Everyone (FFE) – in social style, and with social impact. When you purchase a Correa Table between 31 March–2 May (T&Cs below), you’ll receive a $110 gift card to purchase one of FFE’s brilliant culinary inspired posters, which also help feed people in need. See below for more on this wonderful organisation, but first here’s a quick guide on how to take advantage of the offer.
Explore Correa
Recipe posters by Food For Everyone.
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, 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 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.
Many hands make light work when it comes to shelling broad beans for a delicious salad.
Food For Everyone is based on creative collaboration – why did you want to collaborate with Tait? How is it a good fit for Food For Everyone?
Because it felt obvious, in the best way! I think there is an unspoken connection between the brands – and the centrepoint is around people.
Tait makes furniture that’s designed to be lived with, not just looked at. We make work that’s designed to be lived with, not just hung on a wall.
Not just a table, but also a workspace for making Yoghurt Flatbread.
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.
When sides become heroes – Quick Tzatziki and Hollywood Potatoes.
What are the elements of a great communal dining experience?
A slightly overambitious menu.
Not enough forks.
Someone always running back to the kitchen.
A dog circling for scraps.
But really, it’s generosity. Not perfection. Kids running amok. Messy fingers. Food that’s made to be shared. A table that doesn’t mind a bit of mess!!
Gathering around the table with good friends for the main event – Lamb Shoulder, with the rotating Turntable platter making sharing easy.
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.
Ricotta Donuts and coffee for dessert.
What is the difference/benefit of taking the dining experience outside?
Everything feels a bit more relaxed. The rules loosen. Also, food just tastes better outside. I don’t know why. It just does.
Maybe it’s the air. Maybe it’s the fact you’re not trapped in a kitchen trying to time the potatoes!!!
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!!!
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