Recess Time

Recess Time by Practice Tuckshop is an “ugly produce” lunch party at the heart of the Singapore arts district. It is a long-running participatory work that stages a social event—lunch—as the site for performance and engagement. Serving over 2,000 meals across four years, this programme combines the art of cooking, conversation-making, and storytelling into a single encounter.

Invited home cooks and professional chefs, known as “Makan Masters,” go on veggie rescue missions in their local communities to salvage unwanted or “ugly” produce. They then incorporate the rescued ingredients into a three-course menu of their choosing.

Conversations at Recess Time are documented using an auto-ethnographic approach by a floating interviewer, known as the “Kaypoh” (Busybody) Queen/King. Stories from participants are recorded in the Recess Journal, which also contains messages from past chefs, photographs, and food-waste-friendly recipes.