Slow Cooking with Sonia Sandhu – Episode 5

Welcome to Slow Cooking, a new multimedia podcast about all things food, art-making, social politics and environmentalism. This conversation with Sonia Sandhu was recorded at Theatre in the Mill (Bradford, UK) and is published in three different formats: Video, Audio and Text.

For this episode, we are joined by Bradford’s own chef and artist extraordinaire, Sonia Sandhu. We started by going around traditional shops in town, and then spent the day in Sonia’s kitchen, preparing and cooking together, before traveling to the the wonderful Theatre in the Mill, to share the food with our audience and guests, and to continue the threads of conversations around Sonia’s own history and relationship with food-practices, her own heritage and how food impacts her creative practice. 

Theatre in the Mill sits right bang in the centre of Bradford and the University grounds. Bradford is, in my humble opinion, a city of delights. From its multicultural communities, to its rich history of migration and trade between peoples. It was also here that the independent Labour Party started, in 1983. It is, in my opinion, the best town in the UK for food! In the city, you can find food from various communities, such as desert parlours, massala fish and chips, to Fish Karahi, or Tom Kah. All seemingly made with love, care, and a deep respect for the food’s history, context and flavour.

If you’ve ever tasted Sonia’s iconic food and learned about her approach to it, you won’t easily forget how the taste lingers, and how it blends itself to your taste buds. I still smile when I remember the taste of that aubergine! 

Bom apetite 👩🏼‍🍳🥣

TEXT: Slow Cooking with Sonia Sandhu

PODCAST:

VIDEO: Episode 5 – Sonia Sandhu

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Created by Xavier de Sousa
With special participation by Sonia Sandhu
Narrative by Xavier de Sousa
Food creation and cooking by Sonia Sandhu
Filmed by Richard Warburton, Lydia Chouler-Tissier
Edited by Richard Warburton
Co-edited by Baiba Sprance
Sound work by Olive Mondegreen
Filmed on location in Bradford, England including Jamil Food Store, Sonia’s kitchen and Theatre in the Mill
Additional footage provided by the artist & HowlRound Theatre Commons
Commissioned by Theatre in the Mill, performingborders and Migrant Actions Productions. 
Strategic Producing & Consultancy by The Uncultured
Additional funding by Arts Council England

BIOGRAPHIES

Sonia Sandhu is a Bradford born & based chef, artist and producer. Her plant forward menus are global-inspired, thoughtfully prepared, seasonal, and vibrant. She has catered for retreats, gatherings, gigs, weddings, theatre and installation art shows, and teaches regular mindfulness through bread-making classes with sanctuary seekers. She co-runs Edible Archives, an emerging arts company, creating multi-sensorial art installations which incorporate telling heritage stories through playful menus, sound and set.

Xavier de Sousa
Xavier de Sousa (he/they) is an multidisciplinary performance maker and culture worker based between Portugal and the UK. 


They co-curate the digital research and live art commissioning platform performingborders, and Citemor Festival (Portugal). Previously developed and co-curated performance events Queer Migrant Takeover and CUT Festival, as well as New Queers on the Block, Marlborough Productions’ Artist and Community Development programme. Their creative practice also encompasses writing, having published various creative, reflective and research-based texts for publications such as METAL, Penguin, Les Cahiers Luxembourgeois and Centre national de littérature – Lëtzebuerger Literaturarchiv. As a producer, they launched the free-resource space Producer Gathering together with Sally Rose, and worked on the development of the Producer Agreement, the first agreement of its kind in the sector for unions BECTU and ITC. Previously, they produced for independent artists such as Louise Orwin, jamie lewis hadley and Evangelia Kolyra, amongst many others.

Xavier’s performance works include Almost Xav (Southbank Centre), and the trilogy of collaborative shows about belonging and power structures, POST (Ovalhouse, international tour), Pós- (Teatro do Bairro Alto & CITEMOR) and REGNANT (HOME, LiveCollission). They have recently launched a performance-exhibition What Becomes… (METAL, East Street Arts) and a series of multi-media podcasts Slow Cooking. Previously, they collaborated with Tim Etchels, Rosana Cade, The Famous Lauren Barri-Holstein, Needless Alley Collective and presented work with Ovalhouse Theatre, HOME, East Street Arts, Latitude Festival, Tate Modern, METAL Culture, Southbank Centre, The Yard Theatre (UK), Untethered Magic (Kenya), Warehouse9 (DK), CITEMOR Festival, Teatro do Bairro Alto (Portugal), Operastate Festival (Italy), Onassis Culture Centre (Athens), IIT Gujarat (India), Kalamata Dance Festival (Greece), Más Allá Del Muro Festival (Mexico), amongst others.

Xavier is a founder of Migrants in Culture and is a member of BECTU and ITC – Independent Theatre Council.

Website: www.xavierdesousa.co.uk | Twitter: @Xavinisms | Instagram: @Xavinisms

Olive Mondegreen
Olive Mondegreen is an escapee from the music industry. After releasing ten albums in ten years and touring Europe multiple times, she moved into using her music to support choreographers. Her third full length score debuts November 2024 for the show “Juice” in Heilbronn, Germany. Since the pandemic, Olive has also worked as a podcast editor and producer for multiple shows including the weekly anti-hustle careers show “What The Hell Is My Job” and the modern history “My Queer Museum”. She enjoys having no social media.