Interview with food anthropologist Jolien Benjamin ep.37

Stories on our plate, recipes and conversations.

Editors: Jolien Benjamin, Deborah F Toner, Emma-Jayne Abbots, J. Fleming

Photography and food-styling: Rocio Carvajal

Arts and Humanities Research Council, University of Wales. Trinity Saint David, University of Leicester, 2018

This book is a result of collaborative research bridging together the London-based food incubator Stories on Our Plate (SOOP), food anthropologists, cultural historians and cooks from a multicultural background that are based in London, England and have formed part of SOOP’s training program and, or, its supper club series.

The project, sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council aims to encourage cross-cultural conversations through cooking and eating food and sharing stories of culinary heritage and cultural identity, this recipe book celebrates the rich and deep narratives of foods from the ethnically diverse community that makes London a vast melting pot.

Everyone involved in this project believes that food, and its narratives, can act as vehicles for translating the histories and cultures of different parts of the world to one another, and that food can encourage individuals to reflect and value our own culinary heritage as part of our identity. In a complex and challenging social and political environment, giving new possibilities to cultural diasporas and migrant groups to express their cultural heritage through food, in which dialogue and exchange can bring seemingly opposite world-views together and find commonalities in the way in which love and care are manifested across the world.

Capturing the stories behind the selected recipes were Jolien Benjamin, together with Elodie Vincendeau, and photographer Rocio Carvajal, who were welcomed into the cooks’ homes where the ingredients, smells, tastes, embodied practices, and kitchen utensils helped creating delicious and evocative conversations. The stories and recipes highlight the fluidity and openness of cuisines, the adaptation and hybridity of dishes, and the ways in which people make and remake their home, identity, and sense of belonging. It is an invitation to the reader to be inspired to cook and think about and share their own food stories, as well as listening to those of others.