ABOUT food connects
As an essential part of all human life, food has the capacity to connect us all.
My name is Charlotte Maberly, and I’ve been practicing interdisciplinary food education since 2013. I’ve worked within academia, with private groups, individual destinations, businesses, non-profits and schools, using food as a relatable way of engaging with the complexities of our world; from politics to pleasure, AI to agriculture, economics to aesthetics, and beyond.
My experience
MSc Gastronomy students learning the politics & pleasures of raw milk cheese making with Barry Graham of Locharthur Creamery.
I’ve craved a deeper knowledge of food for as long as I can remember. My hunger eventually led me to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy where I became a Master of Food Culture. I returned home to Scotland and was provided with the most wonderful opportunity to co-develop and then teach the UK’s first MSc Gastronomy at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
The MSc Gastronomy was an invaluable interdisciplinary study seeking to challenge the way we think about and do food across society and industry. Although the programme closed in 2024, it has been recognised as innovative and vital by key individuals across government, agriculture and education. We’re really proud of the extraordinary alumni network who are now all over Scotland and abroad.
A vital part of the Gastronomy programme was taking our students out of the classroom to directly experience the world of food. We travelled widely across Scotland and Italy, exploring food culture and industry in rural and urban settings, and cultivating a rich network of producers, processors, policy-makers and food-communicators.
These extraordinary interactions inspired me to create my own business in 2018. Food Connects has since provided workshops, experiences, tours and consultancy across Scotland and Europe, using food to explore issues of nature connection, health, sustainability, social-wellbeing, and more.
Recent work
Getting some authentic sound for the FoodScape podcast
Since I began Food Connects in 2018, I have been writing, creating workshops and events, and delivering consultancy around the UK and Europe. Most recently, I produced and presented the FoodScape; a podcast exploring the overlooked but important role of food in the lives and landscape of the region where I live, the Scottish Borders. Making the podcast took me into pigpens, butcheries, farmyards, restaurant kitchens, cattle marts and surplus food cafes, where I found fascinating food stories waiting to be told. You can hear the ways food shapes the identity of a region and the function of a community, by searching for the FoodScape wherever you get your podcasts. You can also read and listen on the Substack page.
My Philosophy
Eating together is a really important part of the workshops I run. It's over simple, good food (which we sometimes make together), that the best part of the conversation and learning often happens.
We are facing significant food-related challenges at local, national and global levels, most notably regarding human health, environmental degradation at the hands of agriculture, and inequitable distribution of wealth and resources. I hope to help myself and others better understand these issues, but never to lose a positive and pleasurable relationship with food. Despite the issues that exist, food remains our way of finding comfort and nourishment, expressing our cultural identity, communicating love and creating conviviality. Above all else, I believe these things must be respected for our future wellbeing and happiness.