Kinky's pumpkin workshop – sketch first, then carve

25 October 2026 · 17:48 · Kinky

Zurich – 25 October 2026, 17:48. Community centre kitchen, orange fingers, a pot of soup on the stove and fourteen pumpkins lined up on the windowsill like a very quiet choir.

Rule number one: pencil before knife

When the community centre asked me to run a carving afternoon for the kids in the neighbourhood, I said yes before they finished the sentence. I had one condition: nobody touches a knife before they have drawn their face on paper. Some kids groaned. Then they started drawing, and suddenly it was the quietest room in Zurich. Grumpy faces, happy faces, a pumpkin with three eyes, one with a moustache, one that was very clearly a portrait of somebody's little brother.

The carving part

The parents did the big cuts, the kids scooped out the insides with spoons, and everybody did the faces with little safety saws. Tip from me: carve the eyes last. Once the eyes are in, the pumpkin is looking at you, and you get nervous. There was pumpkin on the floor, on the tables and in one boy's left ear. He said it was on purpose.

A perfect KC

A girl called Lina sat in the corner the whole time and showed nobody her sketch. When she turned her pumpkin around, there it was: a KC, both letters straight, the curve of the C smooth as a bowl. Better than mine, honestly. I gave her a sticker and asked if she wanted a job. She said she had to ask her mum first.

Soup for everybody

Nothing gets thrown away, that's my kitchen law. The insides went into a big pot with onions, carrots, ginger and coconut milk – vegetarian, as always – and the seeds went into the oven with salt and paprika. Fourteen kids, nine parents, one cat and not a single drop left. One dad asked for the recipe. I wrote it in his notebook and signed it with a tiny pumpkin wearing sunglasses.

Lights out

At the end we put LED tea lights into all the pumpkins (PoshX would be proud) and switched off the ceiling lights. Fourteen faces grinning in the dark, the kids screaming happily, and one of the faces said KC.

Every face starts as a sketch. Even the scary ones.

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