Multicultural Cooking Project

Food represents the glue of many traditions that holds families and cultures together. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, author of the culinary classic "The Physiology of Taste", wrote in 1825, "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are." Food customs define family gatherings, holiday celebrations and special occasions such as religious rituals, births, weddings and funerals, the world over, providing a shared experience that creates and sustains relationship bonds between people or groups. A multicultural cooking project can help people cross cultural barriers and learn to appreciate the diverse traditions of different heritages.
  1. Eat Around the World

    • A multicultural tasting festival lets participants experience culture through food. Recruit volunteers from different countries around the world to cook the traditional foods of their country of origin in mass quantities for everyone to try. Include countries from North and South America, Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe. Decorate the tables with traditional décor of the countries whose cuisine is being featured. Encourage volunteers and participants to dress in authentic cultural costumes. Play music -- live or recorded -- that represents the cultures on display to create a real multicultural ambiance that sets the tone and theme of the party. On a smaller scale, you can hold a family dinner party that features food from several different cultures.

    Global Garden

    • In many cultures, the supermarket is not readily accessible or even available. They eat what they can raise or grow in the garden. Every culinary tradition has signature ingredients and tastes. Make a list of dishes from several countries that you would like to try and identify those ingredients that you can grow. Plant them in your garden and when it is harvest time, invite family and friends to an ethnic feast. For more fun, invite fellow cooks for a cooking day and prepare the dishes together before sitting down to enjoy the multicultural feast.

    Family Food Traditions

    • Every family has its own food traditions and preferences that define the subculture within the family. Invite several families for a dinner party potluck where each family brings some of their signature family favorites to share. Another option is to hold a progressive dinner where guests traipse from house to house sampling the family recipes at each location; or to hold a series of dinner parties where each family takes a turn hosting and feeding the other families using "secret" family recipes.

    Multicultural Cookbook

    • After tasting all the delicious family and cultural recipes, you will undoubtedly have some you wish to remember and try again. Assemble your favorites into a multicultural cookbook and bind for easy reference. Make extra copies to share with fellow multicultural gourmands.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved