2021/22 Production
Little Chef B
Little Chef B is a multilingual show for children about cooking and identity. It is a motivational story that explores the experience of displacement in a way that is inspiring and empowering for children.
This show celebrates diversity by talking about the experience of people who are born in a country different from their parents’ and grow up in multilingual households. In this context, food is an element of connection across cultures.
“When I was 6 years old, I stopped eating...”
Learning later to speak but understanding three languages. Learning later to cook but cooking food from three different traditions. Learning later to belong but belonging everywhere.
The main character of this story is B, a girl with mixed origins: her mother from France, her granddad from Singapore, and she grew up in London. When she was 6 years old, B. stopped eating. It felt like everything had the same flavour, the same smell; a symbol of her difficulty to find her identity and value each culture that was part of her. Her family will help her find herself by teaching her to cook traditional dishes of her heritage.
Little Chef B explores the racial dysphoria of looking and feeling like an experimental dish: a burrata dumpling, a tofu omelette, fish and shrimp chips. It encourages children to find and use their strengths, their creativity and their resilience to make the world a more colourful and tasteful place.
Interview with
Artistic Director: Chiara Virgilio and Movement Director: Kiren Virdee
Chiara Virgilio and Kiren Virdee talk about the ideas behind the production of Little Chef B. They talk about the relevance of food within our cultural identity, and what it feels like to be a third culture kid.
The production is still in the process of making. It will be filmed in a kitchen as episodes of cooking YouTube channels, where drama occurs in each episode.
Project Artistic Director: Chiara Virgilio
Devised by Multicultural Applied Theatre Society
Written by Mana Katsuno
Voice Coach: Claudia Ti
Movement Director: Kiren Virdee
Project Consultant: Valentina Rosati
Performers: Aaron Cheang, Anouk Salters, Kiren Virdee, Mana Katsuno