Cuisine and culture studies

the WHY of studying various cultural, regional, and world cuisines, HOW to effectively cook other cultural dishes, understanding cultural awareness, videos

By immersing ourselves in other cultures beyond our own, we can learn about each other—where people came from, what their traditions are, and what they struggle with as a community. It also forces us to criticize assumptions held about our own daily life and practices, encouraging incredible personal growth.

Unification through food

Food is a great unifier; it can connect people from different backgrounds and experiences. Food tells a story about who people are and where they come from. It bridges nationalities, geographies, and generations. Just the aroma of food can take us back to our childhood or to somewhere we’ve visited abroad. By learning more about food from other cultures, we also learn about the history, geography, climate, economy and many other factors that make each country or region unique. Sharing meals makes bridging cultural divides simpler.

how to experience other cultures through cooking

One of the best parts about getting to travel the world would be all the new flavors that you’re giving yourself to try. Being introduced to new tastes, smells, and foods that just can’t be found in your home country is a massive treat, right? But why go back to your regular diet once the trip is over? Instead, one of the best things you could do for yourself is to embrace these new flavors.

So what better way than to cook them right in the comfort of your own home? Plus, giving yourself a chance to experiment means that it’s going to make cooking a lot easier and way more fun too! So, here is everything you need to know about getting yourself to learn and cook the different cuisines that this beautiful world offers!

Try to Recreate Foods You’ve Already Had

If you want to get as accurate as possible with your cooking, especially when it comes to dipping your toes into a new cuisine, why not try to recreate something that you’ve had before? This way, you know exactly what you’re going to get, and you know exactly what you want and how the turnout will be.

You could start out with something very basic such as sushi or fried rice, but if you want something a tad easier, you could even go for instant pot lamb stew. In the end, the entire point is to be able to give yourself a nice reference point so you know whether or not you’re doing something correctly and how it should turn out. It’s far easier than judging by pictures or videos anyways because you’re already well-familiar with the taste!

Be Open to Alternative Ingredients

If you want to make something extremely unique and you live in an area where you’re limited on the selection of groceries (such as a rural area), then you probably know that you can’t make international cuisines 100% accurate. But that’s completely okay! In fact, one of the most common challenges when remaking recipes from international cuisines at home is sourcing the proper ingredients.

Instead of giving up on making the dish at all, just allow yourself some alternatives. You can read up on substitute ingredients or find a recipe that calls for something that you can easily source at your local grocery store. Worst case scenario, you can buy them online if you need certain ingredients that can’t be alternated.

Consider Cooking Classes

While cooking classes were once a tourist activity that would be done, nowadays, cooking classes are everywhere, and that includes online too! These can be both in-person and online, so you can have a fun and informative experience no matter what your age or skill level is. So regardless of how you choose to do your cooking class, you can still count on this being a fantastic experience! Plus, you’ll get the chance to learn some things that a recipe book wouldn’t be able to teach you. Speaking of recipe books…

Try Out Recipe Books and Online Tutorials

You cannot go wrong with this method whatsoever. Nowadays, recipe books are free or cheap, and on top of that, you can find so many recipes for free online. Not just from blog posts, but there are so many different cooking videos on YouTube as well. So you’re bound to be both very entertained while you’re still getting help with creating amazing dishes from all other the world! Just be warned that some cooks will add their own twist, so not every recipe will be authentic.

Chef Learning

This may sound a bit unusual, but this is actually slowly becoming more popular when it comes to people wanting to cook, especially if it’s different cuisines from around the world. You can use chef learning to teach yourself to cook different cuisines from around the world. This will allow you to taste new flavors and gain a better understanding of how different ingredients work together.

If you want to cook like a chef, then you need to think like a chef. This will mean interpreting dishes in your own way to fit your palate. While this doesn’t make a dish 100%, it will make it tailored to you, the chef- which is what matters most in the first place. This will make you a more confident and versatile chef who can make any dish look and taste fantastic.

When it comes to learning about all the different cuisines that are out there in the world, what matters most is having fun. You shouldn’t take this too seriously, especially if you’re a home cook. Just take your time with learning and just roll with the fun!

culture outside the kitchen

what is cultural awareness?

Cultural awareness, or cultural sensitivity, is being aware that cultural differences and similarities exist, while not judging people based on that. A non-judgemental mindset lets you observe cultural differences without labelling them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, or ‘right or wrong’.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be an expert in other cultures. It just means being willing to be open-minded and to ask questions to get more information, rather than having a knee-jerk reaction to anything you don’t agree with.

Why is cultural awareness important?

Developing your understanding of other cultures, or ‘cultural awareness’, lets you have more meaningful interactions with those around you. You’re building your respect and empathy for other people, and celebrating your differences as well as your similarities. This makes you less likely to treat someone differently, just because they are from a different culture or ethnicity than you.

Ways to build cultural understanding and awareness

It can be very easy to stick with what you know, rather than try to meet people who are different from you. However, actively trying to understand and embrace cultural differences can open you up to a whole world of experiences. Here’s what you can do:

Do your own research

Learning about different cultures can be a great way to develop an understanding of cultural diversity.

You could try: Check out some foreign films on SBS or Netflix, attend a local food festival, or search for some online resources.

Become self-aware

Work out your own beliefs, values and personal biases. This includes biases about your own cultural background.

Yep – it can be confronting, but by doing this you’ll be able to think about how these traits might impact on your approach to and understanding of differences.

You could try: Think about what assumptions you make about your friends, peers, people you work with and strangers you see walking down the street. What assumptions do you make about people from the same background as you?

Talk to someone from a different cultural background

Try and get to know someone from a different cultural background better. You don’t necessarily have to ask them directly about their culture, but by getting to know them as a friend or peer, you’ll automatically find out more about their life and experiences. Just being curious and open-minded can be helpful.

You could try: Have a chat or catch-up with an acquaintance, friend or coworker that you’ve wanted to get to know better. Remember to treat them just like you would anyone else, and don't think of them only as a way to get to know about other cultural backgrounds.

If you’d rather try your luck online, there are sites that help you look for an international penpal. This is also a great way to practise your language skills if you’re learning a language.

Traveling to other places

One of the best ways to experience and understand other cultures is to actually live among them. It might take a while to save for, but planning a trip overseas to a country you’re interested in can be the best way of opening yourself up to new cultures.

You could try: Check out some virtual travel and history experiences from the comfort of your own home.

Be more accepting

Sometimes, for one reason or another, it’s not all that easy to understand some cultural differences. In these situations, the best approach is just to acknowledge that some people are different and to accept that that’s okay. You don’t have to understand, or even agree with, someone in order to accept them.

You could try: Practise being empathetic towards the people around you and be mindful of your thoughts about others. Try not to compare or judge. Learn more about how you can become more accepting.

videos on food and culture

Food is not only culture, it's diplomacy: Leah Selim at TEDxGowanus

Leah Selim is a co-founder of Global Kitchen, a social enterprise that hosts immigrant-led cooking classes to promote cultural exchange and awareness through food. In her recent TEDx talk, she discussed how food, identity, environment and politics intersect - contributing to a larger concept known as "gastrodiplomacy". It is through the communal act of sharing food that ideas can be exchanged freely, an essential first step in growing a community.

How Food Connects Us | National Geographic

No matter the nationality, the one common language humanity has in common is food.

Our Global Kitchen - Food, Nature, Culture

Air, water, food -- all three are essential to human life, health, and well-being, but food alone stirs our soul. We require it; we crave it; we sometimes obsess over it. Food connects us to our environment, to the world around us, and to each other, like nothing else.

Cultural Competence

Our world is becoming more connected, and various cultures will interact more in our daily lives. Learn about Cultural Competence and join the discussion.

“My Dad was in the Navy, so we moved around a lot. That led to me seeing myriad cultures and cuisines. I have been excited about eating and cooking for as long as I can remember.” ---Graham Elliot

in conclusion

Even if you hear or read something about a certain culture, it’s important to realise that this doesn’t mean everyone from that particular background acts/thinks/believes the same thing. Just as not everyone you know has identical beliefs, people who come from different cultural backgrounds aren’t all a certain way, either.

Think beyond stereotypes

One of the biggest difficulties to overcome in understanding cultural differences is making judgements based on one opinion. Do your own research and make an effort to actually learn about people, instead of making broad-brush assessments. Stereotyping people from different cultural backgrounds can impact their quality of life and opportunities.

Everyone is unique

The main thing to remember is that everyone, no matter what their cultural background, has their own unique opinions, habits and ways of life. The sooner you accept that everyone is different, the easier it becomes to understand and embrace cultural differences.

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