Writer Brenda Casha provides a heart-warming, intimate peephole into her grandparent’s (traditionally Maltese) kitchen in her project titled Ghand In-Nanna.

Through images and writing, she paints a picture of a space and environment which plays on our visual and olfactory senses, instilling a feeling which is very much what ‘home’ would feel like to many Maltese.

Although the main focus is the tasty traditional meals cooked up by Brenda’s grandparents,  (reinstating the belief that the best food is definitely nanna’s food), the aesthetics, design and accessories, characters and details which feature within her grandparents’ kitchen are a beautiful ode to, and documentation of, Malta in its most genuine form.

“I love Malta too much,” Brenda begins, when asked about the motivation behind the page. “We are seeing a change around the whole world. However, immigration and emigration are not new phenomena. How many relatives do we have who are in Canada or Australia?” she asks. “Everyone is scared that our Malta is going to change, because we know that it is going to change. Therefore, one of the reasons for creating this page is for us to treasure Maltese traditions together. Traditions which are intrinsic to our grandparents.” 

At first glance, the project is largely a culinary collection of traditional meals. Pastizzi, brodu, te fit-tazza, hobza Maltija, lampuki, imqarrun and kusksu all feature within the project. However, each picture within the collection is also loaded with traditional imagery. The yellow cupboards, Formica table, knitted jumpers and magnet-packed fridge door are common denominators which are very much a product of their own time, and an embodiment of a generation that many Maltese would not have experienced anywhere else outside the home of their oldest relatives.

“The other reason, and perhaps the primary reason (for doing this project), is that I love my grandparents immensely,” she says, suggesting that her grandparents are only growing older. “You don’t know when the last time that you will speak to them, or see them, will be. You don't know when you will eat your last meal with them,” she laments, concluding that “it is this harsh relationship of life and death which forces us to love each other with a big and pure love.”

Indeed, the project succeeds in doing just that; immortalising a Maltese way of life and experience which may not live past the current, older generation - making it all the more important, and all the more valuable.

Follow Brenda’s evolving project on @ghandinnanna on Instagram or Ghand in-Nanna on Facebook.