Chef Chris Waghorn is up at 2am at Auckland's Māngere Refugee Centre, and he'll likely still be in the kitchen for another 12 hours or so every day during March.
About 200 refugees could be going through the centre at any one time - and Waghorn estimates more than half of them could be fasting for the Islamic month of Ramadan.
His staff - four of whom are fasting too - will be rotating through a longer-than-usual 20-hour day to cater for the after-sunset meal, iftar, and before-sunrise meal, suhoor, as well as the usual meals for everyone else in March.
"It's normally around 12-plus hour [work] day. But with this Ramadan ... they break their fast a bit later, I think it's 8.30pm, so our opening window is 20 hours. So we need to look at how we're going to work that," Waghorn says.
Photo: Marika Khabazi
"I need my staff on my side to back me up ... because they normally finish at 6pm or 7pm. I can't say, 'by the way, you're going to finish at 10.30pm', that's just unfair."
Since Waghorn, a Cater Plus chef, opened the centre's kitchen in 2016, there have been a lot of lessons learnt, he says. For example, many Muslims break their fast with dates, but some nationalities don't want the sweet little fruit, while others are very specific - preferring an odd number to be eaten.
"It's different [for each person] and I've learnt that, it's amazing what you learn.
"So when it comes to Islam, a lot of people are naïve and I think that can be with all religions, if you're naïve, you just don't know about it."
Trying to serve the right amount at each meal is hard too. Muslim children don't fast, while teenagers might eat a lot and the elderly often won't, he explains.
Staff are working around the clock to cater to the needs of Ramadan. Photo: Mangere Refugee Centre
"I would go through about 40 kilos of rice a day, because that's for lunch and dinner... depends on if we have fries or potatoes, the rice drops down a bit.
"When it comes to eggs, I cook for breakfast probably between 300 and 400 eggs a day, every day, depending on numbers, could be more, could be less.
"In regards to weight of meat protein, I would get... 300-plus kilos a week, easy," Waghorn says, adding he still has to stick within budget.
Waghorn tasks fellow Cater Plus worker Ahmad Azemah, a Palestinian who arrived as a refugee in 2017, with handling the Ramadan menu so residents can get a taste of home. This will be his fourth Ramadan at the centre.
Photo: Marika Khabazi
"We try to always be fair with everyone, so sometimes we do Mediterranean food, sometimes we do Indian food, just because we have multi-cultural here," Azemah says.
"We do rice, we do always curry, we do vegetarian dishes, so we have options," he says.
There is always curry on offer at the Refugee Centre. Photo: Mangere Refugee Centre
"In our culture, like the Mediterranean, from Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine, so we always start Ramadan with something white, like we do a yoghurt sauce, for example we have shakriya [yogurt-based dish often made with lamb] ... I don't know why but this is the culture."
For suhoor, he says they opt for something a bit lighter like olives, feta and dips, which would be familiar to one of the biggest groups of nationalities that go through the centre, Syrians.
For suhoor, there's usually lighter options like feta and dips. Photo: Mangere Refugee Centre
Waghorn says one of the biggest difficulties they face is capturing the taste preferences of the 10-14 nationalities going through the centre.
Theme night involves different nationalities cooking their authentic dishes at Māngere's Refugee Centre. Photo: Supplied / Māngere Refugee Centre Kitchen
That's why he decided to set up 'theme night' for every new refugee intake, where a few groups of the biggest nationalities gather in the kitchen and cook under the supervision of experts.
"I try my hardest to get exactly what they want," Waghorn says. "Trust me, I can be searching Auckland to find the ingredients. I've failed a couple of times where it's just impossible to get, so they'll give me a different recipe and we'll go through the ingredients and then I can get it."
While theme nights help chefs understand what the refugees would like to eat, the goal is to share an experience with people of various cultures and bond with each other, Waghorn says.
"If you understand where they're coming from and the fighting amongst where they come from, and they're in here, then I'll put them in the kitchen, which is even smaller.
Photo: Supplied
"I had two groups in [the kitchen] who would not work alongside one another... I said fine you can leave, because this is my kitchen, this is how it is, they stayed, didn't leave.
"That was on a Monday, so there was no word spoken... The Tuesday, bit of 'hello and how are you?' [On] Wednesday, they're taking selfies of one another. Now that's satisfying, that is what I wanted."
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