Place at the Table Glasgow - inspiring discussions on food, diversity and identity

What is modern Scottish food? How much choice do we really have in what we eat? Can food break down cultural barriers? Can it help us reconcile our past? Where is the better city for food, Glasgow or Edinburgh?

These were just some of the many questions asked in the two-day Place at the Table Festival which took place in the City Halls in Glasgow’s Merchant City over the 31 July and 1 August.

Organised by the Oxford Cultural Collective and in association with Glasgow Life, the discussions - and evening dinners at Swadish, Drygate and Celentano’s - saw chefs such as Andi Oliver, Pam Brunton and Julie Lin in discussions with poet, playwright and Scotland’s former Makar, Jackie Kay CBE; renowned US historian Dr Jessica B. Harris; and podcaster and food writer Noby Leong among many others.

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Taking place amid the colour and celebration of the Merchant City Festival and in the midst of the Commonwealth Games, the city was abuzz. But, the discussions and dinners also came a week after Glasgow Green became the site of anti-immigration protests - a topic which wasn’t shied away from by the panelists.

Rosalind Erskine

From Pam Brunton’s impassioned talk on modern Scottish cuisine, how food culture is culture and how policy and decisions are shaping out food choices, often beyond our knowledge - and how these decisions can be changed to help the smaller independent businesses and rural communities to Kirsty Wark in conversation with Jackie Kay CBE, Andi Oliver and Dr Jessica B.

Harris on how chefs, artists and activists can harness the power of food to reclaim history, connect generations and mobilise for social justice; this was an important, inspiring and thought provoking two days that touched on the profound, politics and past as well as the hope for the future.

To end the festival a special celebration of Scotland and the Caribbean took place at Celentano’s.

Cooked by Inver’s co-owner and head chef Pam Brunton, Andi Oliver and Dean Parker, the meal took the best of Scottish and Caribbean produce to create dishes such as saltfish and Arbroath smokie fritters; ‘buljol bree’ chilled crab and tomato broth and Free Company mutton served with rice and peas and plantain.

Before the meal, Pam Brunton summed up what the whole two days had been about, saying: “This is part of the Commonwealth festival and the history of the Commonwealth isn’t all sunshine and roses, there are some deeply troubling aspects of our history and our relationship with the rest of the world.

However the menu is to celebrate the great things that have come out of cultural and trade relationships from across the globe and to celebrate the best things that have been brought to Scotland by our relationship with the rest of the world.

Because the spices, the sugar, the chocolate, the tea, the coffee - these things define what Scotland tastes like. We would not understand the rest of the world or ourselves in the same way were it not for these relationships and what has been brought to our shores.”

While small in stature, the festival was an important one especially given our current political climate. Food is something we all need but it’s more than that. It’s where we turn to celebrate, come together in grief or where we take comfort.

Scotland’s food is more than just haggis, neeps and tatties (which aren’t actually Scottish according to Pam and her fab book Between Two Waters). It’s your local Chinese, it’s chicken tikka masala, it’s our love of sugar brought over from plantations and slavery - on which a lot of Glasgow was built and still hasn’t reconciled with.

But it also represents everyone who has come here and calls Scotland home. That matters now more than ever.