We’re going to be hosting Lancaster based artist Leo Burtin for a weekend hideaway. Sadly this will be the last hideaway we will be hosting from The Milk Bar. Leo will be working on his Homemade series while he’s here, and as part of this he is going to run Le Bistroquet – a free pop up restaurant on Saturday 28th March. It’s free and open to the public – we’d love audiences to come and join us for one of our last public events at The Milk Bar.

Whether you’d like to share a taste of home, or discuss your latest culinary experiment, the chef at this unusual establishment is prepared to feed you in exchange for yours and your grandmother’s kitchen secrets! Pop in anytime, have a natter with a waiter and your fellow customer; and when you’re ready, add your own recipe to our collection of publicly donated step-by-step guide to the people’s favourite dishes!

Le Bistroquet is a durational participatory intervention for public spaces. The piece subtly sets up an alternative mode of economic exchange and gently subverts the commercial marketplace by inviting passers-by to contribute knowledge in return for a plateful of food. The piece is an unashamedly socially engaged attempt at facilitating conversations between strangers and encourages participants to consider the relationship their eating habits or preferences has to their (cultural) identity.

Le Bistroquet forms part of a larger body of work, Homemade which seeks to interact with, explore and question the links between food, domesticity and (auto)biography. It playfully uses the familiar format of recipes and food based social gatherings in an attempt to make the project accessible to as wide a range of people as possible. Leo will be working on other aspects of Homemade throughout the weekend at Residence.