Join us at Venn Canteen on March 8th and 9th, 2025, for a unique culinary event exploring urban ecologies through food.
London-based culinary artist Barney Pau, known for his innovative edible table scapes and focus on foraging and fermenting as social resistance; collaborates with Venn co-founder and chef Monika Błoch, whose passion for food allows her to treat it as a bridge between nature and humanity.
Plating Workshop [Saturday, 08/03/25 - Time TBC]
From the cracks in our pavements to fissures in our façades, urban ecologies thrive in every corner of our busy cities. This plating workshop offers an immersive food experience celebrating the lives that thrive in these urban ecologies.
During this workshop, guests will be invited to interact with an edible tablescape created by Barney Pau and Monika Błoch. As they explore this food scene, Barney and Monika will elaborate on the foods they’ve created.
Guests will then be encouraged to use the foods laid our before them to plate their own edible interpretation of the theme. Everyone will then sit down together to enjoy the meal communally.
Guests will also receive a printed zine of one of Barney’s essays, The Ecology of Dereliction, detailing the story of a fictional building site’s ecological succession. The zine offers a literary insight into the food experience, reframing how abandoned urban spaces are perceived.
5 Course Dinner [Sunday, 09/03/25 - 19h-22h]
For this dinner, Barney and Monika will elaborate on the theme of ‘urban ecologies’ by creating a series of dishes inspired by the cities we live in. This will involve five courses of delicious dishes, elevating ingredients that might otherwise go to waste or get overlooked into fine dishes.
Guests should expect the unexpected, including underappreciated ingredients such as common weeds, fruit skins, and bread rusks, as well as unusual ferments and home-brewed champagnes. This will be paired with a selection of Venn Canteen’s natural and low intervention wines (non-alcoholic pairing available).
Guests will also receive a printed zine of one of Barney’s essays, The Ecology of Dereliction, detailing the story of a fictional building site’s ecological succession. The zine offers a literary insight into the food experience, reframing how abandoned urban spaces are perceived.
About Barney Pau
Barney Pau is a London-based creative working across food, art and writing, focussing on food futures, queering consumption, and foraging and fermenting as social resistance. He believes food transcends language in its communication, using it in his art practice as both inspiration and medium.
He explores this by exhibiting in art shows and concept-driven events; through his Queering Theory series for MOLD; in editing the Gramounce Journal; through his peer-reviewed writing; and on his Substack. He is also founding editor of Finger Food Magazine, a contributor-based print platform for creatives working in food.
“There is no such thing as ‘away.’ When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.”
