Londoners looking for a more hands-on connection to Gambian culture have a date to mark: Chef Lamin is scheduled to lead a Gambian cookery class in Peckham on Friday, October 23, 2026, with participants cooking a full family-style meal before sitting down to eat together.
The class is organised by Migrateful, a social enterprise known for cookery classes led by migrant and refugee chefs. The October session is listed as a London pop-up at All Saints Church, 7 Blenheim Grove, London SE15 4QS, close to Peckham’s town centre and rail connections.
Date, time and ticket price
The class runs from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, October 23. Migrateful’s October calendar lists the ticket price at £59. The organisation’s classes are approximately two and a half hours long, combining cooking, cultural discussion and the meal at the end.
Because class capacities are smaller than concert venues, availability can disappear quickly. Anyone interested should book through Migrateful’s official event calendar or its authorised Eventbrite checkout rather than sending payment to an individual promoter.
Who is Chef Lamin?
Migrateful’s event description introduces Lamin as a Gambian cook who learned to cook at home from his mother. He says he moved to the United Kingdom in 2023 and now enjoys sharing Gambian and wider West African food with people he meets there. His class is designed around the idea that food can carry stories about family, culture and hospitality as effectively as a lecture can.
The event description identifies Lamin as Mandinka and presents his teaching style as social and practical. That background matters because dishes such as benachin, yassa and domoda are not simply restaurant items. They are everyday foods with household variations, debates about ingredients and strong connections to how Gambian families gather and eat.
What’s on the menu?
Migrateful says the menu is subject to change, but the published October listing includes a broad introduction to Gambian flavours:
- Benachin, the one-pot rice dish often described outside The Gambia as Gambian jollof rice. The listed version is vegan.
- Chicken Yassa, built around chicken, onion and mustard-forward flavours.
- Domoda, prepared here as a vegan aubergine and sweet-potato peanut-butter stew.
- Gambian salad, listed as vegan.
- Panketti, Gambian-style doughnuts served with a hot chilli sauce.
- Ngalakh, a baobab and peanut-butter dessert.
- Wonjo, the deep-red hibiscus drink familiar across The Gambia and Senegal.
The class is described as vegetarian-friendly because six of the seven listed dishes are meat-free, but it is not a fully vegetarian session because chicken yassa is included.
Allergy information is not optional reading
The published menu contains several significant allergens, including peanuts, gluten, eggs, milk, mustard, celery, soya and sulphites. Domoda and ngalakh both involve peanuts, while panketti includes egg and wheat. Migrateful says it does not substitute ingredients to accommodate every dietary requirement, so people with allergies should read the event page carefully before booking and contact the organiser if anything is unclear.
The organisation also states that its meat is halal in classes other than those involving pork. That is useful information for many Gambian and Muslim participants, but anyone with a specific dietary requirement should still verify the current event details directly with Migrateful.
What happens during the class?
This is not a demonstration where participants sit and watch a chef cook everything. Migrateful uses a family-style format. The group divides into teams or stations, with each team concentrating on one part of the meal while participants move around, help one another and learn from the other dishes.
At the end, the chef, participants, facilitator and volunteers sit down to share the food they have prepared. Recipes are emailed after the class so participants can repeat the dishes at home.
Migrateful advises people to bring their own apron, because aprons are not provided. It also recommends bringing takeaway containers in case food is left at the end. That is the sort of detail worth knowing before arriving in a nice shirt and discovering that the evening involves onions, tomato, chilli and peanut stew rather than a tasteful little tasting spoon.
Venue: All Saints Church, Peckham
All Saints Peckham is at Blenheim Grove in SE15 4QS. The church’s own website confirms the location and contact details. The cooking class is a pop-up event using the community venue; it is not a church service or religious programme.
Peckham Rye railway station is nearby, making train and Overground connections the most practical option for many visitors. Because London road conditions and parking restrictions change, Migrateful has not advertised dedicated event parking. Drivers should check current street restrictions and commercial parking options before travelling rather than assuming church parking will be available.
Dress code
There is no published dress code. Practical kitchen clothing makes more sense than event fashion: closed shoes, comfortable clothes and sleeves that will not drag through food. Long hair should be tied back. Bring an apron as requested by Migrateful.
Eating before or after the class
A full sit-down meal is part of the class, so booking a large dinner immediately afterward would be ambitious in a way only humans planning Friday nights can manage. Peckham has a dense restaurant and café scene around Rye Lane and the station if participants want coffee, a drink or somewhere to meet friends before the session.
Because Migrateful does not name an official restaurant partner for this event, WhatsOn-Gambia is not presenting any nearby business as endorsed by the organiser. Visitors should check current opening hours and reservations on the day, especially on a Friday evening.
Hotels and late travel
The organiser has not listed an official hotel partner. Visitors coming from outside London should search around Peckham, Camberwell or central London based on their onward transport rather than choosing accommodation solely by straight-line distance. The class ends at 9 p.m., leaving time for most London public-transport connections, but rail engineering works can change weekend travel patterns.
If travelling from outside the city, check the final train before buying a non-refundable ticket. A £59 class followed by an unexpected £160 taxi home would be a very British way to turn domoda into an economics lesson.
Migrateful’s wider model adds another layer. Its classes are designed to give migrant and refugee chefs a platform to share skills, build confidence and earn income while participants learn about cultures through direct interaction. For Lamin, the Gambian menu becomes both a cooking lesson and a personal story about learning from his mother and carrying those recipes into a new city.
How to attend
Book through Migrateful’s official October 2026 calendar. Confirm that the listing says Gambian Cookery Class with Lamin, Friday October 23, 6:30-9:00 p.m., at All Saints Church, 7 Blenheim Grove, London SE15 4QS, and check that the ticket price shown at checkout matches the current official listing.
Before booking, review the allergen list. Before leaving home, bring an apron and consider a takeaway container. And arrive ready to work: the point of the evening is not simply to eat Gambian food, but to learn how the meal comes together.