Today, Maz has been the head chef at The Union in Rye for a little over a year. We asked Maz to explain her decision to become a chef and leave Brazil for England.

Will Devlin, chef, Birchwood, The Small Holding, in RyeZine.

The idea to set up a food market came about by accident as much as by intention. I’d been thinking about ways of supporting small local growers for a while, wondering how to bring their delicious produce to the community on a very human level. A food market seemed the obvious route, but creating the conditions for it to succeed in a country where markets are not part of the DNA would be tricky. And then, as a regular to the walled garden of Water Lane, perhaps here the conditions were just right. Introducing the idea to them went a little something like this…