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Mika Kranen

Who’s Who Interview #2
Mika Kranen. Photo by Pete Fung

Posted On 12/09/2022

Interview By Pete Ho Ching Fung

Celebrating five years anniversary of running the Zbar, Mika reflects upon her experience caring through the food we eat and community collaboration.

→&nbsp Where does the name Zbar comes from?

It actually stands for “the” bar. I have been told that because the French do not know how to pronounce “the” so they called it “zhe”, hence it got turned into Zbar especially with the logo having the Z capitalised.

→&nbsp What else does Zbar do beyond serving food to students?

We also do a lot of catering, weekly, sometime almost daily, for midterms or endterms, or other meetings for staff and tutors. We also take care of events, like the opening of the academic year or the graduation ceremony. We served at the graduation show as well for the first time last year. It was such an honourable job to do. Recently, we were also approached by one of the students who was involved as a volunteer with the Strausslaan refugee centre. We collaborated and cooked a soup for charity supporting Ukraine. It was a special Borscht recipe and we raised 252euro in one afternoon. Then using this proceeds, and together with a very nice group of DAE colleagues and students, we created a luxury dinner for all the refugees from Ukraine who is currently living at Strausslaan in Eindhoven. It is our way of spoiling them a bit in the middle of their traumatic experience and offer our solidarity.

→ &nbspWere you always into cooking?

I am a graphic designer, did you know? I studied eight years of graphic design and then I fell in love with Italy. I started a bed and breakfast there and luckily we needed a website, a logo and some publicity work. So that’s where the graphic design came in. That’s also where I learnt cooking. I can honestly tell you, when I was 36 I had never touched cilantro or ginger or cumin. I had no experience with cooking at all but it was necessity over there. I learnt it by looking and trying a lot, testing a lot. We had an Italian friend in the same village we were staying in, who would be the person I cooked for to know whether my food was good or not. It was there that I realised the passion of food was in me and that I can not do without for the rest of my life.

→&nbsp How did you end up in a school?

When I came back to the Netherlands, I wanted to do something with cooking so I started as a rented cook for parties or for dinners. I just started this after living in Italy for 16 years, and one day the food adviser from DAE asked if I could help improve the service here for students. It started off as a three month project but after three weeks, they asked me to stay. I liked the environment with the students so much, so I stayed. That was 5 years ago, 22 May this year (2022).

→ &nbspWhere do your recipes come from?

I learnt a lot from the students. The students are from 60 different nationalities. I only came in with the Italian perspective so I always ask the new students, “what does your mama make for you?” “What are you missing - can I try to make that for you?”. That way I am learning through the students and their experiences. I don't think student even realise. During COVID, we tried to keep the staff hired, so we had homework for the team to test out different recipes, each of us would have to deliver 5 new dishes and there are 7 of us. So we now have a new batch of recipes.

→&nbsp Where can student find you? For what they can find you and When?

I would like to have more collaborations with students. It was in the first business plan I wrote and we used to do it sometimes with students from the Food non Food department. I think I am really easy to approach but I see sometimes students are shy. One time we gave the leftover grease we used for cooking to a masters student and she gave me a bar of soap she made from it in return — the excitement from these sort of collaborations give me wings. You can also ask me for recipes — I am happy to share them with you. And of course, if you have any comments or feedback on the food I am more than happy to hear about them. Everything is possible.

"It is different from just eating a cheap floppy sandwich working at your computer."

→&nbsp What is care to you? What are some of the challenges in running a food program for students?

Before I came here I was used to taking care of people in a luxury position, people who have the financial strength to go to Italy, to rent a car, rent a bed and breakfast. That’s a totally different point of view than where the students are coming from. We have a pressure from the academy. We also have the pressure from students who come from other parts of the world to bloody Eindhoven to study. I can not even imagine that aspect. This is completely the opposite from where I came from. But I actually like it a lot to take care of people that might not have the money for it. It is a really big challenge to cook for the price we sell it for, and to do it healthily as well. If you were to cook for yourself, maybe the red pasta sauce was your favourite, at least when I was a student that was the case. But when you are cooking for others, you have to think about nutrition as a factor. And also setting up this room, the atmosphere in the Zbar. Students take half an hour out from their studies, hopefully to recharge themselves. It is different from just eating a cheap floppy sandwich working at your computer.

We noticed this after this period of COVID, and now in this terrible war situation. People are so emotional they are exploding. Hopefully they find in us the shoulder to cry on and the ear to talk to. Running Zbar is about the care taking as well, it is not only the food, but also the support as well.