09 / 10 / 2026
Who's Cooking Next Tuesday?
What happens when we eat together, besides eating? A TY-CO conversation at OPU's Community Kitchen
Across Nicosia, community kitchens, shared meals and collective food gatherings are creating different ways for people to come together.
On Tuesday 6 October 2026, before ABR cooked for OPU's Community Kitchen, we invited some of the people behind it to an open conversation at OPU House: who gathers around these tables, what keeps people coming back, and what more communal eating could offer the city. Then we ate: roasted pumpkin with tahini, cabbage salad and a fruity bulgur salad.
How it started
It started with barbecues, because OPU happened to have a barbecue and wanted to meet more people. Then someone suggested making it a regular thing. Everyone said no, because it meant more work. He said he'd take it over and put it on WhatsApp to see who wanted to help.
Since then it has run almost every week, non-stop. Along the way it became more organised, cut down on food waste, and turned vegan-ish.
So who's cooking?
Anyone can. At the end of every month, a poll goes out on the OPU Kitchen WhatsApp group for the Tuesdays ahead. You pick a date and take it over. Often a few head chefs cook together. One night in August around 90 people came, in a kitchen not built for that many. The blender broke and someone ran home for a replacement.
“Very messy, but it worked.”
IT WAS VERY STRESSFUL, BUT AFTER THE MOMENT, THAT'S WHAT BRINGS YOU TOGETHER
Why people come back
Regulars talked about the mix of people who show up, and how open everyone is to talking with strangers, in a way that rarely happens at a café or a bar. One volunteer came for the first time in the summer and signed up to cook the very next week: “I met so many interesting people. I don't think I would have met them anywhere else but here.”
Another guest described a fruit-picking club in her village in the UK, where volunteers collect fruit from gardens and share it for free. It gives an isolated, older community a sense of togetherness.
One in every neighbourhood?
If every neighbourhood needs a community kitchen, the buildings already exist. Every neighbourhood in Cyprus has a school that is shut after the afternoon, with space, toilets, kitchens and running water.
Others pointed to the old σωματεία, the community clubs every village and neighbourhood has. Many were absorbed by political parties decades ago and now run as restaurants. The suggestion: take them back. And if we want community kitchens, we also need community gardens, which Cyprus is still missing.
Then we ate
The conversation ended the way the kitchen does every Tuesday: “Let's talk about our ideas while we eat.”
To cook with OPU’s Community Kitchen, find OPU Collective on Instagram at @opu_collective.
In the press: Christothea Iakovou wrote about this evening for Politis. «Από ένα γεύμα... στη διεκδίκηση της πόλης» (in Greek) →
Read it in English on our blog →
Photos: George Stylianou and OPU Community
TY-CO (communities in conversation) · ABR – Alternative Brains Rule · Co-funded by the European Union
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.