Features / cookery school
A gateway to global culinary traditions
Framed photos inside Migrateful’s cookery school in Bedminster are both an invitation and a glimpse of the many global culinary stories it holds.
Brainchild of Jess Thompson, the refugee and migrant-led school inside Windmill Hill City Farm first opened in London in 2017 in the backdrop of the Brexit referendum.
“There was a lot of anti-migration rhetoric in the news and it was quite upsetting,” said Jess. “Particularly for my generation to suddenly see this wave of anti-immigration protests in the UK.”
Jess Thompson started Migrateful in 2017 as a way of helping refugees and migrants “integrate” into society – photo: Narrated Frames
Around this time was also when Jess first read about the concept of contact theory, which proposes that positive interactions between different social groups could lead to reduced prejudices between them.
She continued: “In this case, people felt that migrants were a problem for the country because they were reading that in the news.
“But when you actually meet an individual and connect with them on a human level, you don’t see them as a problem anymore.”
The cookery classes at Migrateful, Jess added, were an ideal way to facilitate this positive interaction, as people here unite for “the shared goal of learning how to cook a meal”.
Once cooked, participants share the prepared meals over the food’s origin stories – photo: Migrateful
At Migrateful, people with migrant and refugee backgrounds don chef hats and impart culinary skills and knowledge from their own respective cultures. Since its inception, Migrateful has hosted over 5,000 classes with more than 60,000 participants attending them.
Before finding a permanent home in Windmill Hill City Farm, the Migrateful team regularly hosted classes from community kitchens at The Mazi Project and the Co-exist Community Centre in Bristol.
“But we got to a point where the demand got large enough that we actually needed our own space,” said Jess. “They didn’t have enough room for us in those other pop-up venues.”
Jess, who is originally from Bristol, started working with refugee women in east London as part of a skill exchange programme.
“All of the women were unemployed despite really wanting to work, and they were feeling very socially isolated.”
Qualifications from home countries not being recognised and legal and language barriers restricted most of these women’s ability to work in the UK.
When interacting with them as part of the skill exchange programme, Jess found that many women felt “excited” at the idea of teaching people to cook.
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Jess said: “Although they weren’t professional chefs, they were passionate home cooks and that was a skill they felt proud of.
“That was the moment I thought this could become their job.”
Jess believed people in the UK would want to learn about their different cuisines, which could also become an effective way to “integrate” them into society.
Nearly a decade after she started, Jess sees Migrateful as “so much more than going out for dinner”.
“You’re actually learning about the chef’s culture and how they prepare food,” said Jess. “So when you go home, you can continue to make the food yourself – it’s a learning experience.”
As of 2025, Migrateful has given people from 48 different nationalities the chance to share their culinary traditions and stories.
Now with a permanent home in Bristol, she said: “We started a crowdfunding campaign, where we got enough money to pay for the fit out costs. The cookery school has cost us a £100,000, so it’s a pretty big investment.
“It’s a really beautiful space. We had architects who designed the London space for free and the same architects have designed the Bristol space. So it looks similar.
“It’s going to be a very exciting new chapter for Migrateful.”
Main photo: Narrated Frames
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