Process:
For the intercultural tool we decided to create a cookbook. The idea was that food is a kind of universal language that connects all of us, and is a great starting point for learning about different cultures in a way we can all appreciate. After planning what we wanted to cook and doing some research on dishes from each culture we had on our team, we went to Andrea’s house to actually cook the food.
Once there, I volunteered to do the photography as well cooking the Indian Butter Chicken with Aakash. I also decided to direct filmography and record as much footage as I could to use as promotional material on instagram and other social media.
Hours later, when we were done with everything, Vince started on the cookbook while I worked on the promotional video. After the first presentation of what we had, we got some feedback on the cookbook and I decided to take the redesign of it on as well and redid the thing from scratch in Adobe XD.
I also set up our Instagram page for promotion and engagement with the Instagram community. We didn’t get around to doing more with this, however, due to time constraints with the recent holidays. I do think it would’ve been a great avenue for bringing our message into the world if we’d had more time to interact with the community. Our first post got to 10 likes within the first hour without us having any followers.
Reflection:
I had a lot of fun cooking with the group. I usually prefer to cook Asian cuisine myself but during this experience I’ve learned some new things here and there that I would have never thought of before; such as washing chicken breasts before cutting them so that they aren’t as slippery. I also liked showing some of the others some of my own tips and skills that they then tried out themselves. All in all it was a great learning experience, something I’d definitely like to try again to see if there’s even more to learn from these other cultures.
I think there’s a lot to learn from other cultures, even when it comes to the food. It’s something that can be so similar yet so different. Like the Russian salad, Olivie, is what our Dutch Huzarensalade salad is based on. We eat it mainly throughout the summer at barbeques and such here in The Netherlands, while for Russian cultures it’s actually a staple New Year’s eve dish.
Food, in a way, is also a universal language. I think if you really want to experience a culture, you should cook with people from it. It provides you with so many insights that you would never notice otherwise.