Writing on Food & Design: “You & I eat the same”
In this new review series about publications that write about food and/or food and design, we have asked our international correspondents to share their most inspiring publications with us! The first to share her food and design reading recommendations is our Food & Experience correspondent Maud de Rohan Willner.
“You & I Eat the same: on the countless ways food and cooking connects us to one another” by Chris Ying and René Redzepi proposes that immigration is fundamental to cuisine.
Being a food designer first starts with understanding your own food culture but also food cultures around the world. We are constantly looking into food rituals around the world, comparing what we eat here and there, finding similarities and differences. Humans have always been travelling around whether in communities, for business, to start a new life elsewhere.
We often bring our food culture to a new place, trying to merge it with the new culture we are faced with. Some are more open to change than others, which is why you can see many similar foods in different countries, adapted in a variety of versions. Here in the UK for example, curry and Indian food have become staple foods due to the large Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities spread across the country, and as Ben Mervis says “curry grows wherever it goes”. Looking into various topics such as why “everybody wraps meat in flatbread” as well as table manners and food stories, this book examines how food brings people together sometimes giving us new opportunities (see “food is a gateway”) and the common traditions we have (see “your fire and my fire burn the same”).
You can get your copy here.
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Reading recommendation by Maud de Rohan Willner, founder of Salty Studio UK
