Chop and Chat

October 13, 2025

Chop & Chat

Cooking, Learning and Connecting Through Food

Chop & Chat is a community cooking format that transforms the kitchen into a space for encounter and exchange. People of different ages, backgrounds and nationalities come together to talk about everyday life and the challenges they face; from discrimination and growing older in a city like Berlin to rising living costs, health, and how to stay active in times of global uncertainty. Food is at the heart of these encounters. Through hands-on cooking with seasonal ingredients, our format creates a learning space around local food systems, healthy and affordable eating, and the realities of food production in Brandenburg.

Together with the community-supported agriculture initiative Gemüse Syndikat, which connects the Karolinenhof garden and the Auenhof Havelland, we bring the countryside to the city. Farmer Johanna joins our cooking sessions with fresh vegetables from her farm in Brandenburg and practical knowledge, making questions of origin, seasonality and sustainability tangible and accessible. In this way, the kitchen turns into a place for democratic dialogue between city and countryside, enabling direct exchange, mutual learning and a deeper appreciation of the people and processes behind our food.

Chop & Chat is a cooperation between Nachbarschaftshaus Urbanstraße e.V. and the Torhaus Kochkollektiv; two organisations with a strong commitment to food as a social and ecological issue. Both are LebensMittelPunkte within Berlin’s Food Hub network, initiated by VFnuK e.V. (Verein zur Förderung einer nachhaltigen urbanen Kultur e.V.) as part of Berlin’s food policy strategy. Our kitchen formats also take part in the European research project SWITCH, in which VFnuK serves as a living lab partner for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, exploring how people can be supported in shifting their eating habits towards healthier and more sustainable diets.

Torhaus is deeply involved in reducing food waste, especially by rescuing surplus food from the conventional supermarket system and working with foodsharing initiatives. NHU has many years of experience using community cooking as a tool for social cohesion, bringing together families, long-term residents, newly arrived Berliners, refugees, older people and young people in the neighbourhood.

Once a month, Chop & Chat hosts an expanded Kitchen for All, alternating between the community spaces of Nachbarschaftshaus Urbanstraße and the Mehrgenerationenhaus Gneisenaustraße in Kreuzberg. The menu of each event is developed collectively in a democratic and creative process. While chopping, stirring and sharing a meal, conversations flow naturally and new connections are made.

Chop & Chat is realised through funding by the Deutsche Bahn Stiftung, whose support makes these inclusive and free community cooking events possible.

Join us – Chop & Chat Dates 2026

Chop, cook, talk and eat with us. Whether you are a long-time Berliner or new to the city, young or old, passionate about food or simply curious to meet others. You are warmly invited: