In terms of atmosphere and food, The Geese has it all. You cannot exactly say that the pub is particularly tucked away, with it only being a five-minute walk away from the level. It is also not a hidden gem – it regularly features on lists of the best Sunday roast in Brighton and always seems busy. I have to say, it certainly is one of the best that I have had in a while, and I make a mean roast myself.
The meat-based roasts were gorgeous, but they do plenty of vegetarian and vegan friendly options. A family friend got the vegan sausages and said that they were lovely. The roast garlic and thyme chicken were plentiful and had a beautiful flavour. You really could taste the herbs used. And the portion size! I mean, I functionally had almost half a chicken to myself. It is a permanent fixture on the menu, and I highly recommend it if you love chicken. Or even do not, it was that good. I eat a lot of chicken, and trust me, it is worth getting. The lamb is not a permanent fixture on the menu, but I would also recommend getting it if it is on the menu. It was a perfect balance of plenty of meat, and fat. It was beautifully tender, and I am sure even my grandad would have been happy with it which is saying something.
Now, onto the accoutrements. The cauliflower cheese was probably the best one that I have had in a restaurant. It was perfectly cheesy and was gluten free as well so that’s always a plus. They clearly used a good strong cheddar, which just elevated it perfectly. And I am from Somerset, so I know my cheese. My only wish is that it also included broccoli – although there is a separate broccoli cheese on the menu. The carrots were cooked nicely but they were a little bit plain in my opinion. The cabbage was hidden under the meat (or alternatives), but it was nice. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of cooked red cabbage, so I wasn’t particularly impressed with that part of the dinner. However, my mother and our family friend did enjoy it, so you’ll have to take their word for it. The roast potatoes were wonderfully crispy and are also probably one of the best roasties I have had. Once again, this is saying something because I really love roasties. The Yorkshire puddings were pretty good, and they did come with the vegan sausages so that’s always a plus. I will say, the bottoms were a little bit stodgy, and I have had better. They were probably the weakest point of the roast, and that is saying something.
Overall, it was a brilliant roast, even if we did not make it to desert. I would highly recommend the short walk to The Geese on a Sunday, just for the roasties on their own. But remember to book in advance – they are always popular.
16 Southover St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 9UA
A secondary school teacher, specialising in drama with neurodiverse students, turned food psychotherapist. I trained as a therapist and in parallel began teaching cooking in the community. Early on, I realised the impact of working with food and cooking as part of the therapeutic journey and the power of food to heal. Therapy Kitchen (private practice) and Kitchen Sessions (CIC) were born.
What do you do and how do you do it?
I use a mixture of my personal and professional experience as a parent, teacher and psychotherapist who adores good food and learned its value growing up – through my working mum’s boil-in-the-bag TV dinners and my traditional grandmother’s home cooked – to create food-based, fun, delicious and empowering therapeutic events. I work with family groups, of all ages, in particular people on the margins and those who are financially disenfranchised who wouldn’t usually access therapy. The cooking workshops usually take place outside and a meal is made using seasonal and local goods eaten around a campfire. While chopping, prepping and cooking the food, we explore issues such as life changes (menopause) health (such as diabetes) and mental health (anxiety, addiction, depression) or social issues (loneliness, isolation, low income). As people are involved in relatively mundane tasks, their eyes on the chopping board or stirring spoon, they can relax and allow their feelings to be shared in the safety and warmth of the kitchen space.
As people engage with this basic creative activity, their sense of inclusion and capability encourages a refreshing sense of calm. From here people have the opportunity to naturally explore their unique human experience with each other. There is also the opportunity to learn about how ingredients work together that has a reflection on how we work with one another, each adding our particular flavour to the whole event and going away with a sense of belonging.
Why do you do it?
My upbringing and experience of life have shown me the importance and power of cooking good food that can be shared. Food unites people and I believe this approach is one we need as a global community – to come home to who we are as a species. In a world hurtling along on machine time, with AI type technologies dominating a materialistic, consumerist culture, we need a return to what makes us human. Food is our first taste of love, cooking is our first conversation. By returning to this primary human experience, we may well be able to answer the pressing issues of the day.
What’s your mission?
To change the world, one meal at a time. If we reorientate our attention to how we eat, understanding the value of love in our cooking, we can create a paradigm shift from profit to people.
What difference do you hope to make?
Enabling people to take responsibility for their welfare, fostering networks of useful exchange within our community that strengthen social bonds. By empowering people’s sense of creative confidence we can make healthier life choices, for long term welfare.
Tell me about the families you work with the difference you have made to their lives?
I have been working with families from Whitehawk Primary School (as it was then) and now Chomp for the last 15 years. These are low income families, who might also be struggling with culinary knowledge, mental and physical health issues. By using cooking as a therapeutic medium, I can offer a wide range of practical interventions that meet people where they are. The idea is to offer preventative social medicine. By that I mean that social networks of support are created in workshops that centre around the campfire inside or outside. While people are doing something practical with food, they will naturally share information and conversation with one another. This gives people a sense of connection and confidence that they can take into life. I’ve seen these sessions inspire cooking clubs in people’s homes so that each workshop continues to work its magic long after the event. Meals create memories and provide the ongoing ‘attachment nutrition’ we need. Food and love make a whole meal.
If you could achieve anything in the next 5 years what would it be?
To create ‘kitchen sessions’ all over the country that have a life of their own, addressing and responding to the needs of that community, all linked in the overall aim of using food-making as our primary medicine.
What is a changemaker and are you one?
A changemaker is someone or something who is able to use the ingredients around them creatively to make a difference, to find an applicable solution to current dilemmas, responding to the specific needs of the moment with imagination, compassion and future based thinking. Yes, I do see myself as a changemaker. By cooking a meal that adapts to the specific needs of the moment, I am making change and helping others to do so, one meal at a time. Currently, our attention is being hijacked into the external, commercial world – through Kitchen Sessions, I want to empower people to find their ability to change, and unleash the potential for healing and nourishment within the individual and the community at large.
Describe the world you want to create through food therapy.
I’d like to create a world where people understand the value of their personal potential, the essential magic of community and cooperation that is at the heart of being human. Here we can shift our focus from profit first to people first. We’ve lost ourselves in consumption. The world I’d like to help create is one where we shift from external, extrinsic and mechanised concerns, to internal, intrinsic and natural, human needs.
Climate change can feel like an overwhelmingly difficult issue, something just too big for people like you and me to do anything meaningful about. But Global CEO of Compassion in World Farming, Philip Lymbery reminds us that we have an opportunity three times every single day to make a real difference. And that’s about what we eat.
Eating locally, seasonally, supporting the farmers who grow and the chefs who source responsibly, eating less but better meat – if eating meat at all – eating real food not ultra-processed and adding more plants to your plate not only reduces the carbon footprint of your food bill but makes us healthier too. And that takes the weight off the NHS, which is already buckling under the burden of diet-related diseases.
And where we eat makes a difference too. Diego Alejandro Ricuarte is the founder of Palmito, the Brighton favourite where classic street food dishes from Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador come with an affordable price tag and an ethical halo.
“Our butcher is Will Pountney at Barfields who mostly deals with local sourced meat. We know the farmers he works with, but we also buy from our own favourites; we get whole lambs from Rosie Martin at Nuthurst Farm, and goats from Ed Brown at Clapham Farm whose whole family believes in creating more sustainable local food systems.
“Rare breed Middle White Pigs are always on the menu at Palmito and I’ve been getting them from Richard Vaughan at Hunstham Farm in the Wye Valley. The farm has been in the family for 400 years and they have a small team devoted to the pigs to make sure that they are reared and fattened really slowly.
“We have been working directly with Sophie Bullacher who has her own market garden – you can follow her on Instagram @pitfield.veg. She delivers some of our vegetables directly from her land every Wednesday, and we really love the way she thinks about the food she grows. She studied craft and design at Brighton University, but she quickly realised how wasteful the big budget jobs she was getting were. She leads a really sustainable low impact way of life herself, and so she decided to start growing vegetables for cool restaurants like Palmito! It’s a lovely story.
“The other vegetables and dairy we source from Shrub.London (www.shrub.london) which is a brilliant hub for over 45 ethical farms, but gives restaurants next day delivery, which is important. Our mushrooms and wild food come from Chris Amys the forager who has a workshop at Stammer Park.
“It is still a work in progress. To be able to work directly with the growers and producers has been a challenge, but we want our diners to see how hard we try to source well, support good farming, and still be able to be competitive. We want our cooks to be directly involved with the food they cook and to know where things come from.
“What I eat at home is what I cook at the venue. Like today, it is my day off and I just go visit growers and get to know them more. Just like other people care about a brand of shoes and know everything about them, I like to know what I put in my mouth. I am in awe with people who grow food, and by using local producers I have been welcomed into their land. I win from that on a personal level because I realise that we share the same values and we choose those values over profit.
“What really makes me happy is that all my suppliers come to Palmito every week. They know my staff by name and vice versa. They have a chat and they get excited about the produce. Therein lies our philosophy. Grow food, know food, grow community. When the young cooks I employ know what it takes to grow those products and they can put a face to them, then they are more careful about food in general. It works for us.”
The Whistler 