Food&Culture

I was always innovator in the new places that I visit. The concept of being Visitor and not the Resident. Feeling Free to move and live.

I spend many years in Kuwait by organizing cooking classes. My journey there was to discover all cultures and bring them together, I was focused on making money for living but now when I look back, I learnt and gained much more than this. Respect and the nonjudgmental tables were creating the space between. The warmth and the solidarity to cook together, and the taste of the Food while celebrating on the long tables. No one’s willing to leave these new friendships.

I can say that best way to Discovering the cultures, first was to discover their food, their traditions and the second their languages, how they pronounce what are the syllables of the word meaning, how it is vibrating in the air? Which I will explain later.

I have no shame to say that I am proud to make possible to Many chefs. Most of them started their own cooking classes or opened their own restaurants or were promoted to better 5-star hotels kitchens after performing and getting confident and learning the process of it.

So the Food and Cultures.

I cooked and learned from many native chefs and home cooks their way of treating their food, their ingredients and their cooking methods. That helped me improve my attitude of shopping, cooking and serving.

First step starts to respond, respond to my offer. Do they want to cook for a various group of people and what do they want in return? Some say Fame, some say money, some say just for the Fun and Love of sharing. Responding is the challenging part. Because while and at the end not everyone is always happy. As I said different culture cuisine is not always palatable, and it needs courage to cook these dishes.

Then it starts preparing the menu. Does she/he decide what to cook in 3h and celebrate in1h? Menu contains 2-3 small dishes as entre, main dish with comfort food, and the dessert.

Then comes shopping for ingredients, Does the chef bother to shop with organizer, or at least does she/he have a shopping list? If not then, need to use what’s on the store as left over creativity food, then not a menu. Mostly they come to shop for their ingredients, then how they choose their ingredients, what are their criteria to buy? Do they think about quality, Budged or they don’t care about any of them?

Then comes to carry the food to the venue. Do they bother helping to carry and clean the vegetables or are they the show stars? It depends also on their expectation of why they want to be chefs. How they prepare their mixing balls, their knives, their pots to cook and the caring for attendees.

Then the cooking starts, some attendees stay closer to the stove help to chef and learn the details, some stay in the corner of the table and blame the organizer. And the Food quality depends on the organizer resources, the group and the chef.

Some cut the vegetables too big, so it doesn’t cook well, some cut too thin, and it disappears in the meal. Some refuses to cut, some may burn the food by too much stirring the pot, while chef guiding others to mix the other ingredients.

Menu’s Cooking order is also important because it is limited time only 4h in total. First Need to prepare the dessert so that can go to fridge to cool down for the end of the dinner. Some chefs are well organized and some not.

What is the language that chef uses while cooking according to her cultural condition? The tone of their voice? Is it sharp, is it cool? When is it sharp? When is it cool?

Then comes the serving and preparing the table then celebration part.

If the cooking exceeds its time period of 3h, no one wants to prepare the table, and everyone will be already tired to eat so a bit of “silent dinner” maybe with few left willing to taste what they cooked for 1 more hour. Does chef sit with them on the table or rushing to clean and go? Does she/he stay for helping to clean at all?

If it is on time, different cultures have different ways of eating and treating food. How do they serve them self, or do they serve themselves, or do they wait for someone serving for them? Do they fill their plates too much? Do they care about sharing with others? Some attendees come only for dinner and not cooking and claim that they have already paid the whole fee, so what is the response of the chef for that situation also depend on her culture.

So, if you want to know about the Culture first thing is to look at how they shop, how they cook, how they eat and how they share.

FH