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Culture, Cuisine and Conversation

A group meal from a birds-eye view
  • Written byPostgraduate Community
  • Published date 27 January 2022
A group meal from a birds-eye view
Image: Culture, Cuisine and Conversation

What is Culture, Cuisine, and Conversations? By Rijul Narwal and Chalisa Intisarn

Culture, Cuisine, and Conversations is a series of events for all UAL post-grad students to come together and explore different aspects of cultures and the world through dishes from every corner of the world. The concept of the event is to use a conversation about food as a bridge for UAL fellows to connect with each other. It is a space for us all to get to know each other, make new friends from all around the world, try new foods, exchange ideas and more importantly make the most out of being in an international environment.

Why food though?

Food is a topic that comes up a lot when starting a new conversation with strangers. It is exciting and fun to talk about. Food is also carrying cultural identity so talking about food, recipe or memories about it could easily lead you to understand more about one another's culture. You might be surprised by what comes up during conversations.

There was a first-ever Culture, Cuisine, and Conversation event last Wednesday. it was an online gathering that was organised by two Post-Grad Community Ambassadors (future in-person event is in the process of making it happen, so please keep an eye on the newsletters!). But before that what happened during the event last week?

‘Let’s talk Comfort Food!’ which was the topic of conversation for the Culture, Cuisine and Conversation series. The virtual event started by asking the students to mark where they are from originally, on the world map. It was exciting to see people come from different parts and corners of the world, united by their love for food.

Poster for Culture, Cuisine and Conversations event
Image: Culture, Cuisine and Conversation

Everyone was asked ‘What comfort food means to you?’ The participants were enthusiastic and creative in expressing themselves - from references to the movie ‘Ratatouille’ to popular internet memes.

With so much food talk, however, it became important to address the elephant in the room - we are not all master chefs! So, we went around sharing stories of our cooking disasters, shared pictures where we had them. Whether it was someone who had been cooking for years, or someone who is new to cooking for themselves, it was fascinating to see how simple things we don’t think can go wrong, went disastrously. One specific story was shared where the person used a plastic plate to cover the chicken dish for faster cooking, but very soon, the plate itself had melted into the chicken - leaving nothing edible behind!

Descriptions of people's kitchen nightmares
Image: Culture, Cuisine and Conversation online event

We closed the event by sharing our own personal cooking hacks, what is our go-to recipe? A range of secrets was shared from regular ramen noodle hacks to fancy-sounding puttanesca pasta recipes.

We believe food is one of the best conversation starters! Our hope for the future is to host monthly events to create a space for people to come together, try different foods and form bonds over their love for food. If you want to be a part of our next event, keep a look out for it in our postgrad community newsletters. See you at the next event!

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Post-Grad Community at UAL

UAL is home to more than 2,400 postgraduate students working across the fields of art, design, screen, communication, fashion, media and performance.  Within our six world-renowned colleges, we aim to form a creative network of artists, designers and innovators.

Post-Grad Community is an inclusive platform for UAL postgraduate students to share work, find opportunities and connect with other creatives within the University and beyond.