CURATING, CONNECTING, GATHER[ING], IN CONVERSATION WITH ELLA YARNTON

Anybody can throw a dinner party, but few master the art of hosting a great one. If you’ve ever left a friend’s house with a belly full of food and a contact list of new connections, know that someone behind the scenes probably worked hard to make it happen.

Hosting dinners and curating culinary events takes commitment, organisational skill, an eye for detail, and an even better palette. Crucially, it requires a deep desire to bring people together. Ella Yarnton, founder of community-led initiative Gather, is exactly that kind of person. “My friends call me the connector!” she tells me over a coffee in a Mitte cafe. “I’ve just always loved bringing people together around the table.”

Ella has been busy at Gather creating “one-off food experiences” and feeding those hungry for connection since 2020, but her knack for event organisation and fundraising kicked in much earlier. “I’ve always liked to do social initiative work whenever I can,” the 33-year-old creative producer explains. “I think I was around 16 when I worked on my first ever event for a charity.”

When Ella moved to London from Australia in her twenties, hosting intimate dinner parties felt like the most organic way to make and nurture new connections – for herself and for new-comers like her. “In the very international cities I’ve lived in, there’s a lot of people trying to navigate new friendships and find their thing,” she says. “My way of getting to know someone better was simply to cook for them. I’m definitely that person who will have eight people over for a long lunch – some of whom might not know each other.”

Pop-ups and secret supper clubs were gaining momentum in London at the time, and this “flourishing” scene encouraged Ella to take her own interest a step further. “I thought, ok I can organise things and I have a passion for raising money, how can I do this through food and conversation at the table?”

In the end, it was unprecedented wildfires happening in her homeland that spurred Ella to host her first big fundraiser. “It was in late 2019, when the devastating bushfires were happening in Australia,” she explains. “At the time, we were absorbing so much news through social media and everyone’s fears were heightened.”

Feeling “isolated and far away” Ella came together with her community to host a 50 person lunch cooked by an Australian chef. The event was a triumph and raised more than $10,000 for a wildlife charity, solidifying in Ella’s mind what Gather’s core purpose should be – community and food as a catalyst for good. “After that event I had the motivation to do it again, and again, and again” she reflects, “I’m on my 15th event now.”

Gather has achieved a lot in its four short years, but it was perhaps when Ella moved to Berlin post-lockdown that an increased interest in her curated gatherings was most noticeable. “Food is a natural connector and conversation starter – people were keen to connect again after so much solitude.”

She considers Berlin the perfect home for Gather – a city that she says is both a “creative melting pot” and a place where many different cultures meet. She describes community-based food initiatives as “existing to bring these different cultures together, to celebrate them and to recognise people’s specific identities and roots – it’s just one potential remedy to the risk of such cultures getting lost in the day-to-day life of Berlin.”

In Berlin and beyond, Gather continues to grow and gain support. “Intimate dinners and pop-ups are definitely on the rise,” she explains. “People are seeking new ways to build connections, outside of partying and work.” But despite an increasingly busy scene, Ella never loses sight of what she set out to do; to help shed a spotlight on those who need it the most. “I prioritise collaborating with under-represented cooks,” she says. “There’s a clear misrepresentation in kitchens- it’s a predominantly white and male environment.”

Her passion when speaking about this injustice is clear: “People might not even be motivated to enter this industry if they don’t see anyone else that looks like them.” It was during the significant resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, when people in the industry were speaking out about the lack of diversity in hospitality, that Ella realised, “People want to see another narrative in the kitchen – not just The White Chef.”

Ella acknowledges amateurs and home cooks alike to be “the real chefs” among us, and often collaborates with those who might not have had formal training but have near-ancient recipes under their belts. “A lot of the people I work with don’t even identify as chefs, but these are also true cooks in my eyes – those with tried and tested recipes from their grandparents.

While Ella acknowledges that her hometown Melbourne has an impressive and diverse food scene that “really stands out”, she has always appreciated the recipes, flavours and richness of food cultures different from her own. She says that initiatives like Gather encourage an exploration of and education around other culinary heritages and let people try something they might not have otherwise. “It’s about removing the barriers, making it accessible, and taking them on a journey during the pop-up.”

Those few words seem to sum up what Gather is all about – removing barriers, by giving cooks an opportunity to bring their food to a new audience and for that audience to try something outside of their ordinary. Ella recalls an event she hosted with Filipino culinary artist Alexis Convento last year. “Alexis cooked a full Kamayan feast,” she beams. “The table was covered with banana leaves, we all ate with our hands. Alexis kept adding food to the table like enoki mushrooms, shrimps..rice…it was beautiful.”

As for what’s next for Gather? Ella acknowledges wholeheartedly that “There’s still a lot of work to do”, but hopes that her work contributes even a small slice towards changing the narrative and stimulating social change. She also wants to expand her offering with more opportunities to her network, perhaps even with a physical space, “I’d love to build up a network of all these people currently existing in Gather’s orbit- to provide a space for them to connect and come together.”

It seems then that Gather is “ever-evolving” – every year and with each collaboration, with the times, with the community, and most of all their needs.

** Ella wears Wells in Brown

Ella’s Recommendations in Berlin

Lon Men’s Noodle House: “I love heading West for food. This is my favourite Taiwanese spot on the buzzing Kantstrasse in Charlottenberg”

Trio: “For a casual German Austrian Friday night dining experience. I usually share the backehndl and Königsberger Klopse.”

Oona Bar: “Home to Refuge Worldwide, a great drinking spot in the heart of the buzzing Neukölln community”

Jementisches: “Delicious and authentic Yemenis food. They don’t serve alcohol so pop to Oona bar before or after for a cocktail!” 

Sathutu: “A modern Sri Lankan restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg- for when you’re feeling like a splurge.”