Making a Cookbook With Nutrition-rich Recipes Using Commonly Found Ingredients In Jakarta

Ever since I was a child, I was always in the athletic scene. Basketball, soccer, tennis -- if there were a sport that other kids were interested in, I would join in on the action as well. However, as time passed, I soon realized that most sports just weren’t for me. There was just too much teamwork involved in these sports, and seeing how I was a pretty socially inept boy at the time, me and my parents decided that these sports wouldn’t help me progress with my accolades. So, I picked up a sport that would stay with me for over 8 years of my life: Swimming. The longer I stayed in swimming, the more I understood how the smallest things can affect how you perform. Incorrect technique leads to lower times, power distribution needs to be perfect, but most importantly: incorrect body shape will only be a burden to you. I quickly understood how working out to keep my belly down would make me more hydrodynamic and make it easier for me to swim. Only a year ago did I learn that my diet had to change as well to aid me in this process.

I found, after a lot of time eating healthy, that this kind of food really does help not only in making an athlete much slimmer, it increases their strength and energy as well. What I had thought was only a way to get slimmer quickly ignited a new passion in me: cooking for myself and others. I love sharing my cooking with others and I enjoy helping others in need for a quick snack, a full meal or even new recipes. My goal with this personal project is to consult with local professionals and research about nutrition, then create a cookbook with nutrition-rich recipes that use commonly found ingredients in Jakarta. This is a highly challenging goal due to the fact that I have very limited experience in the field of nutrition, as well as writing books and creating new recipes. Furthermore, the time needed in order to gather the correct information from the correct people will be a long process and will inevitably take up months just to understand the basics of nutrition.

Global Context

The global context for this personal project is Identities and Relationships. This global context focuses on the relationships between oneself and a community. The strand that is implemented is identity and communities. The recipes created represent parts of my own identity and others can follow suit with using these recipes to help those in certain communities such as sports clubs, family or even friends.

Product

My final product was a cookbook revolving around healthy and nutritious foods that those at home, with little to no prior cooking experience, can make. It consists of 20 recipes, with each having a common ground of being healthy, easy to make, and all-natural. The cookbook was titled Recipes to Live For, (stylized in lowercase as recipes to live for) which was a twist on the usual ‘-to die for’ titles you see in mainstream media, further pushing the narrative of healthy eating.

During the creation of the cookbook, there were a total of 24 developed recipes, however only 20 made the cut and were written into the book. While the book had made no sales (as it was not meant to be commercialized), there were 3 printed copies, which accurately show the stages of the book as it was made.

See my cookbook below!

Reflection

I am thankful that this project has brought me to a greater understanding of the chosen global context, Personal and Cultural Expression. I began to understand how I would express my ideas through a medium as restrictive as a cookbook, and I am very proud of the fact that some of my peers and friends had told me that they sensed a unique style coming from my writing. I learned what it means to make it my own (both figuratively and literally).

IB Learner Reflection

My research and communication skills have drastically improved over the course of the project. I had conducted many interviews over the course of a few months, and in those few months I learned how to start speaking to people that I needed information from. I understood how I should do follow-up questions and what questions to ask the interviewees based on their answers. Furthermore, I had not expected to be able to hold meaningful conversations with the people involved, which made the project much more enjoyable.

Creating recipes for foods that I loved deepened my creative thinking skills, as now I had recipes that I had figured would taste amazing together, all in my head. While some recipes may be basic, there were recipes such as the steak salad, where I would put grapes along with a steak. Taking random ideas out of thin air and turning it into something that people would genuinely enjoy is something that I had aimed for recipes that would truly be mine. Things such as this, which I had once believed would be impossible to work together, made me realize that I could accomplish anything if I just had the right mindset.

Additionally, being a risk taker proved to be beneficial to the success of this product. I believe that, by having the courage to ask those with experience that have extended knowledge on the topic on hand (nutrition), which boosted my self confidence and helped me gain the valuable information that I crucially needed.

My open-mindedness has also improved drastically, possibly due to me learning about a subject I once knew so little about. I know now that not every diet is perfect for each person and that people should adapt to what their bodies need.