Saffron
Kitchen
Project

About Us.

Our mission is to support displaced and vulnerable people in building healthy, autonomous lives, using food as a toolkit. We are a community that leverages food so people can eat, cook, learn and most importantly, feel that they belong.

We are a UK non-profit organisation based in Athens, founded in 2021.

Saffron Kitchen Project (SKP) was started to address a problem; the refugee community and vulnerable people are facing many obstacles such as lack of food, job opportunities as well as inadequate social inclusion.

Our solution is to create a path to employment through vocational and hospitality training as well as providing meals and job opportunities.

Our team, built of hired chefs coming from the refugee community, admin staff and dedicated volunteers ensure the smooth running of the project, upholding our values and solidarity with other actors on the ground.

SKP’s current culinary headquarters are provided by ANKAA Project in the diverse neighbourhood of Kypseli. Collaboration is the cornerstone of any good initiative, for this reason, in order to make SKP as successful as we can be, we collaborate with other organisations based in Athens, allowing us to have the greatest reach possible.

Meet the team…

SKP Team

Evelina Eskenazi

Founder & Director

Evelina's six years in the food industry, working and training in restaurants and ultimately setting up her own catering company, helped her to recognise the importance of food and the joy it can bring to people. She spent the following five years working in humanitarian aid, running a warehouse in a refugee camp and setting up as well as managing an education and community centre. This helped refine her aptitude in working with vulnerable people and running teams of staff and volunteers. All of this experience has equipped her with the necessary skills to start Saffron Kitchen Project, whose goal is to provide both opportunity, and a sense of community, for refugees and vulnerable people.

Her favourite meal is pasta cooked by someone else (obviously by someone who can cook pasta).

Adel Boshi

Head Chef

As a young boy growing up in Damascus, Syria, Adel would try to cook with his mother, but she usually kicked him out of the kitchen because he was too messy. Nevertheless, he went on to graduate from culinary school and began working in restaurants in 2005, making his way from assistant to chef. In 2011, Adel left Syria for Egypt, where he continued working in restaurants. He came to Europe in 2015 and volunteered with the NGO Meet ’n Eat in Berlin. SKP is his first job cooking in Athens and he is excited to help the project grow.

Adel’s favourite meal is mandi, a yellow rice, chicken, and tomato sauce dish, which his mother taught him to make.

Kimuli Ronald

Chef

Before coming to Greece, Kimuli worked for over ten years providing support to street children in Kampala, Uganda. He founded and served as one of the directors of Hope Street Uganda. When he arrived on Samos in 2018, he volunteered with Project Armonia, cooking nutritional food for vulnerable refugees. He feels proud to be part of the SKP team, doing something that gives him not only joy but also professional experience. While working here he continues to provide support in Uganda, and is currently fulfilling his dream of building a home for street children and orphans in Kampala.

Kimuli believes food should be nutritious and provide energy, and his favourite meal is vegetables with rice.

Mamadou Oury Diallo

Kitchen Assistant

Mamadou has experience cooking in various restaurants around Athens
He participated in the IEK culinary training sponsored by Saffron Kitchen Project and his keen interest in developing his skills and love for cooking have made him a fantastic new addition to the team.

His favourite meal is rice and potatoes.

Daphne Magkanioti

Logistics and Accounting

Daphne has a background working in education both in Greece and in the U.K. and she has recently graduated from videography school in Athens.
She has volunteered in multiple organisations throughout the city, and is particularly interested in social inclusion and is commited in tackling this issue with her work in our training programme.
Her favourite dish is pasta in any shape or form!

Fionnuala McGowan

Marketing and Comms

Fionnuala has worked in both the arts and education industries, including co-founding a creative business that provides pop-up, affordable workshops in Scotland. She is a fantastic artist specialising in beautiful prints.
Her creativty and eye for design have given the Saffron Kitchen Project newsletters, journal and marketing material a whole new life.
Subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page to see Fionnuala's work.

Her favourite dish is probably butter chicken, but she says it’s closely followed by roast potatoes with lashings of gravy

Board Members

Jonny Willis

Jonny co-founded Refugee Youth Service in 2016 and sister organisation Velos Youth in 2017. With a background in small business and grassroots NGO leadership, Jonny enjoys the entrepreneurial and operational sides of humanitarian and development work. He joined Saffron Kitchen Project in order to share the lessons learnt and insight developed over the past few years, from working in the grassroots of Greek civil society.

Johnny's favourite meal is pumpkin lasagne, especially when smoked cheese is involved!

Fausta Eskenazi

She is an art dealer with many years of experience in charity work in different places from India, Afghanistan to Tibet as well as Europe. Fausta's knowledge covers fundraising and strategy, and she brings with her a lot of creativity.
Having seen first hand in camps in Greece how food is essential to people’s wellbeing in dire situations she strongly believes in the importance of SKP’s role in the refugee context.

Her favourite meal is Risotto alla Milanese, soft, creamy, soothing and comforting, shining with the happiest of colours, yellow saffron!

Katina Saoulli

Katina’s professional experience includes a degree in law, working in media and advertising, running NGOs within the Greek context and being slightly obsessed with Excel.
Her eagerness to be part of the Saffron Kitchen Project stems from her belief that it provides both an immediate solution by providing nurturing meals and in the longer term enables people to develop real skills with genuine job and integration opportunities. It is to her a perfect example of an organisation supporting the community to organically grow (no pun intended).

Katina’s favourite meal is most things cooked by her mother!

Gabi Herberstein

She is a co-founder of the Greek/Austrian organisation Echo100Plus. Having had the experience of setting up an NGO herself, Gabi believes she can contribute with her realistic outlook, attention to detail and familiarity of working within Greece.
Gabi trusts in the Saffron Kitchen Project's ability to bring people together through cooking and opportunity with a long-lasting effect.

Her favourite meal is aubergine imam bayildi, it’s seasonal food at it’s best!

Our Partners