In a feminist restaurant housed in a theatre, seven immigrant female chefs are bringing a taste of their homelands to Londoners, whilst earning themselves a stake in British society.
“We want to give power to the invisible women around the world,” said Roberta Siao, the 43-year-old Brazilian who runs the kitchen at Mazi Mas, as she worked away on preparing her passion fruit speciality.
The restaurant is housed in the Ovalhouse theatre, directly opposite the Hobbs Gates entrance to The Oval, south London’s famous cricket ground.
She said that without contacts or a network of friends, she could not find a job despite her qualifications and years of experience working at the Central Bank of Brazil.
After several years spent bringing up her son, meeting the creator of Mazi Mas changed her fortunes.
“Marlith’s ceviche”, “Roberta’s passion fruit mousse” and “Ezgi’s borek” — spinach, feta, and filo pastry — are some of the items on the menu.
The house style is the cuisine of Iran, Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru, Nicaragua, Senegal and Turkey, which customers can try out from Tuesday to Saturday.
The “pop-up restaurant” — so-called because it has shifted venue since its launch in 2012 — takes its name from the traditional Greek welcome “Elate na fate mazi mas”, which means “Come eat with us”.
Its creator Nikandre Kopcke grew up in New York and took her inspiration from her Greek nanny, whose dream of running her own bakery was squashed by her traditionalist husband.
Mazi Mas started out in another theatre in Hackney, a poor-turned-hip district north-east of the city centre, and also provided catering for private soirees, notably at the Tate Modern gallery.
It has been at the Ovalhouse since March on an arrangement that will keep it there till at least the end of the year.
The restaurant pays no rent to the theatre, only its gas, water and electricity bills.
The theatre used to be an important meeting place for political activists and is looking to revive its position as a busy hub.
The homelessness charity Emmaus UK provides the donated tables and chairs, which customers can purchase at the end of each month.
Due in part to these cost-cutting arrangements, the part-time chefs earn a wage of £9.50 ($14.40, 12.80 euros) an hour, as opposed to the £6.50 paid to those on the national minimum wage.
For several years the flamboyant 50-something ran her own restaurant-cum-disco on a beach in Peru, but struggled to find work in Britain with her limited grasp of English.
One regular diner, Laura Harrison, 24, said she was drawn to the “real sense of community around the food”.
“The cause behind it all is amazing,” she said.
The restaurant is full most nights and a second restaurant should open in London’s trendy Shoreditch district at the start of next year, before another, permanent outlet, in the middle of 2016.
Some 40 would-be chefs are on the London waiting list.
A Mazi Mas has opened in Sydney, and operates exclusively with female asylum seekers as chefs.
Plans to open outlets in Berlin, Lyon in France and Leeds in northern England are already under way, said Klein.
“There should be a Mazi Mas in every borough of London and all over the world, really,” she said.