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foodfood Much more than what we know...

Mistresses of Spices & Masters of Kitchens Communities and Practices

Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

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food Much more than what we know...

Arushi GuptaMistresses of Spices & Masters of Kitchens

Communities and PracticesSrishti School of Art,

Design and TechnologyApril 2014

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Contents

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2.

3.

4.

6.

5.

7.

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65

55

41

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11

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Page

Introduction

Objective

Food-mind, heart and stomach

Food as religion and tradition

Bibliography

Food for thought

Negotiations in food

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Introduction

Do we often think about food? This book takes you to my journey that talks about not only food but also its associations with different things revolving round it. The book is the outcome of the learning process of one of the courses offered by Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. The course is called, ”Mistresses of Spices & Masters of Kitchens”. It was about the importance of food in our lives as well as communities and practices that we are a part of. The book is in a simple format comprising of seven chapters. In addition to the objective, chapter number 3,4,5 and 6 represent the 4 weeks respectively of all activities in which we were involved, followed by bibliography.

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Objectives

-To understand the self as part of a community.

-To Conduct research and documentation.

-To analyze and communicate different perspectives on socio- cultural and economic information.

-To understand that negotiation is a skill acquired.

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Chapter 1

FOOD - MIND, HEART AND STOMACH

“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like” by Mark Twin is a well-said quote. But how exactly do we like food that we like? Is it how it looks, smells or fairly tastes? Is it what others tell you, is what you like or is it

only your conscience? My opinion to this is food’s aesthetic, artistic and culinary value tells you, if you like it or not. Being a biology student, food for me is any nutritious substance digested by a body in order to maintain life and growth. But for people, since civilization, it has become a very big part of their life and is much more than a source for nutrition. It is something that associates with them. They are known by the food they eat. It has now become a language that communicates through your eyes, tongue, nose and even ears. So when you go to different places in the world the sensibility don’t change, the approach and the way people associate themselves with food changes. Like in India we believe we should eat all the food that is served to us, but in china they believe finishing the served food is disrespect to the chief. Or chicken is considered as vegetarian in foreign countries but not in India. These are the small things that define

where you belong and who you are. While people around you might have misconceptions about your lifestyle, its also their believes that make you what you are or aren’t. For example, Indians are vegetarians or they make only spicy food or they eat with hands or they always have sweets or they put excess of oil in their food. It’s not an accurate representation of what Indian food or how Indians really are. In fact, each region in India has its own style of cooking and serving. In Punjab they ask “tusi khade si?” and serve sarso ka saag and makki di roti. In Rajasthan they “jeemo sa” and serve daal bati churma. In Bengal, they ask “khabar khate” and serve fish and sweets. In Maharashtra, they speak Marathi and ask “jaivan karnarka?” and serve surmai, wada pao and other different dishes. They are all cooked, served and eaten differently in different parts of India. So again we are identified and divided by the language of food. It reminds me how I relate different places to food. These are some more stereotypes about other countries that might not be true. Correspondingly, in Africa, people die because of lack of nutrition. And in contrast, people in America die due to obesity. After all food is not always the good source to maintain our health. Overused or underused, it becomes harmful for us. Fast food, junk food and local cuisines are becoming everyday food for many people. It is not healthy and cause problems for them. On the other hand organic food comes into action, which very less people prefer. They say it doesn’t taste good. I feel this is psychological, and a rumor spread by commercial people to make people buy their food over a period of time. But in Indian traditions, people very much like food cooked at home. And told by their ancestors to have food cooked at home. And I love freshly cooked Indian food. And this movie that we saw one day “Today’s special” was all about Indian food. Directed by David Kaplan this movie is a comedy film that talks about how we

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realize things that we don’t know about ourselves. The film revolves around a chief who works in London. He gets fired and then he builds up his own Indian restaurant in the city, which is rated as the best Indian restaurant in London. The food he cooked was made with Indian spices and as my parents say, lot of love. This again brings us to this fact that food unites two places or religions. Food is not only an art of cooking, but a lot more. It is what makes us, physically, culturally and socially.

“No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after eating one peanut”. We all love food and once we start eating something, we go on eating that dish if we really like it. But for every individual the preferences for food are different. Somewhat it is pretty interesting to understand how people with certain taste like certain dishes only. Maybe the ones, which have almost same spices or sometimes it depends only on their mood. I did a survey in my family and found some peculiar things. Like my grandmother likes food she is eating since childhood and has developed a taste for that kind of food. So she usually doesn’t prefer eating what we like to eat. On the other hand, my sister likes mostly Italian and refuses to even taste traditional food. Also mostly all adults in my family like traditional food but people in my generation like junk food mostly. Why is this that we don’t like traditional food but western food more? I think availability of the dish and the ingredients of the dish decide what kind of food we might like. I think an individual likes certain spices, which make their taste buds go wild, and they desire to have dishes with those spices mostly. In my family, my grandmother’s and father’s/uncle’s choice of food was similar so this might be because of genetic similarities or just their memories that make them like that food. Now if I have to decide for a larger group of people, like Srishti students, to what kind of food they like, I could consider a suggestion from my companions. So I think mostly western. But as we had to decide on traditional food, I believe the dish we choose should have mostly the same spices used by food venders around our area where Srishti students usually eat. So whatever we decide should be traditional, easy to make and ingredients should be available in my reach. But what raw materials am I talking about? Where do these ingredients come from? I got the answers from the movie about food. The film “Food Inc.”, by Robert Kenner

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talks about the corporate farming in the U.S. It mentions that raw material food produced by big companies is unhealthy and harmful for the animals, plants as well as the workers. More over it is abusive for both, you and me. Most people don’t have any idea where there food comes from. They are becoming obese without even realizing how is this happening. The movie talks about all these problems and how vegetables, beef, chickens, pork and hog is so easily available in the supermarkets but is corrupt and unnatural. Also how the overuse of corn is affecting everyone. It shows many processing plants that disturb the life of the employees and degrades the quality of the packaged food we buy. According to me blaming the government is not the solution because even the government is dominated by the industries it is supposed to be regulating. So is it our responsibility to change these things? Can we even do that? I don’t know if alone it is possible or not, but together we need changes at the policy level so carrots are more affordable than chips. This is possible. For example, the tobacco industry had a huge control over public policy and it is the perfect model on how an industry’s irresponsible behavior was changed. If we observe properly the food industry will deliver to the marketplace what the marketplace demands – so if we demand good wholesome food we will get it. To start with, a very simple thing we could do is cooking a meal with our family and eating it together because everyone has a right to healthy food. You can change the world with every bite. So more than a terrific movie, it’s an important movie.

First Friday Food Fest

Can food make people happy? Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that food should make us happy? After all, we eat food to sustain ourselves. Scientifically, It turns out that some foods are made of compounds that have been shown to have an effect on our mood. Which is not bad, but a little peculiar. On 14th march, we had our first food fest. Moreover, even that day when people ate our traditional food, I found a kind of happiness on their faces. There were all traditional dishes. Some were famous and some were not famous. Being the only person from Rajasthan I joined the Malayali group and worked on their traditional food. We made Pazham Pori/banana fritters. It’s a fried traditional Kerela dish; made with banana, maida, rice flour, sugar and salt. It is made out of a special variety of plantain called “Nendrapazham” which is highly nutritious and good source of potassium and

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vitamin A and C. The day was full of work. We took care of everything from buying ingredients to getting them to the college, cooking, decorating, selling, earning and cleaning up the whole place at the end. It was a good experience and we all were appreciated for our efforts and food. Not like others who earned a lot, we fairly made a profit of 30% over our expenditure. But the decent part was that people enjoyed the whole fest and we felt like whatever efforts we made were worth formulating. We faced small problem also while dealing with this situation like the induction pan didn’t work, or we were out of raw material at a point of time but we learn from our experiences. So now we wont make the same mistakes next week. My personal experience was a bit different. It was a bit difficult for me to work with people from another state, that is, Kerela. This was maybe because of the difference in the working process and their respect towards their state’s food. So I decided to listen to them and understand their process of working. So I helped my group with small things like, decorations, washing, providing them with stuff they require while cooking and handling of cash. Their style of working is not the same as ours but very much new to me. They used rice flour and bananas, which is very rare in Rajasthan. The batter was made with certain components I have never seen being used. I could see how they could make associations with food and family. All the time while cooking they talked about how their Amma makes the same thing at home. This also makes me think how people might like some kind of food with which they could associate to. This could be a reason why the famous food item stalls were a success today. People who came to our stall were mostly those who have never tasted this dish before or are really fond of this dish. Some of the people, including me, belonging to various parts of India did not like the dish as much because it has the traditional

South Indian taste that we are not used to eating. Another reason why it was not sold at certain times was, while looking at the ingredients students would see that there is banana in the dish and did not even consider sampling it. Some came, first ate and asked if it contains banana. There respond was nice as they appreciated the recipe, which instead of having banana doesn’t taste like bananas that they don’t like at all. All over, the respond was very good and we learned a lot about how to handle a food stall, plus managing the whole kitchen business. This last thing is not important, but the best moment that day was when I gave one plate of Pazham Pori for free to the Anna who handles the canteen. He just said “thanks”, but the smile on his face was so big that it made my whole day. I was no more upset about the failures and I surely felt the joy of giving. Cooking for others made me really happy today.

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Janapada Loka

A day full of fun and I got to learn about rural folk culture and traditions of Karnataka. On the day 4 of the course we went to this place called Janapada Loka meaning “folk world”. It is situated in Ramanagara district on the Bangalore-Mysore highway. It also houses a wide array of rural artifacts depicting the essence of folk literature, music, dance, festivals, sculpture and lifestyle. But we had to study about things related to food. So we were roaming around, searching about how food was prepared, their utensils, and at the end we ate Karnataka traditional food in their traditional way.

The inside space of the museum was divided in three stages. And there was a place called Kamat Loka Ruchi canteen to eat food, beside Janapada Loka. The first stage was where a man enlightened us about the tribe’s habitat and cooking practices. He explained that the there are two kothis, one for the rich people and one for the workers. They both have different interiors but certain peculiar things in them. Like the heat generated for cooking was also used for boiling water for bath. They had storage space, small pots that were cemented with mud inside the walls of the house for grains. A small area at the entrance of the house was to feed their cattle. Then there was a dinning room, with sitting space on the floor. And then was the kitchen with a lot of storage area and a fireplace. They also had pots that hung from the roof to store butter, which reminded me the Krishna stories I used to listen to from my grandmother. There was a really fancy lock on the door and outside was an area for

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agricultural tools.The second stage was the gallery, which was organized into four major areas; domestic kitchen and storage, domestic utilitarian objects, equipment for animal husbandry and for farming with specific functions and processes. The kitchen section incorporates items like stoves, cookware, and tools such as grinders, trays, vessels and containers. They all had different function and ritual importance. I discovered the rain cover to be the most interesting tool in that gallery. It is a big hat like agricultural tool made out of bamboo. As rice in a grain that has to be tended in heavy rains, since transplanting, fertilizing and weeding of rice is done in monsoon, these covers are used to protect ourselves from getting wet. Also the butter balance was something I saw for the first time. The vendors used to collect butter from households and sold it in weekly market. It was balanced on the thick wooden handle. The last stage was a museum where mostly cultural art and crafts were displayed.

Although some interesting tools were a candleholder, metal water contains etc. Lastly we ate South Indian food in their traditional way. On banana leaf that we washed ourselves, they served us curd, buttermilk, jeera papad, salad pazham, rice, ghee, sambhar, roti, brinjal, 4 types of side dishes and something that looked like dhokla. People around me taught me how to eat the drumstick that was there in the sambhar. I didn’t know how we eat that. In all, the trip was a wonderful experience. We had fun in the bus and there was a sprinkler in the garden, where we got wet because it was a hot sunny day. And what I learned was enlightening and I would surely like to research more on Karnataka’s culture. The one problem I initially faced was in understanding what the guide was trying to tell us because I don’t understand Kannada. But then I took my friend who knows Kannada with me to translate certain things. I guess this was also a part of learning; how to deal with people around you!

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Conclusion

In the duration of the entire week I had a strong urge to eat more and more food. We chattered and talked about food all the time. How food was prepared, raw materials used and traditional and famous food that we get in our vicinity were some of our basic discussions. I started looking at every kitchen with a different view, while talking to my parents all I talked about was food and recipes all the time. I love food and the course is letting me feel happy at all points of time. Food is the driving force of all life form and for me it is all I was thinking about since four days. At home also, Shruti Anand is one food lover I spoke to a lot. The exotic photos of the variety of mouth-watering delicacies filled my nose with its virtual aroma and its scrumptious taste. The movies that we saw were informative as well as inspirational. I found them to be very meek but the essence of the movies and the message they were trying to give was very much to the point. I learned about other traditional food and working with Kerela people was a delighting experience. I can now understand that we stared off with very simple talking and exercises, which is now becoming an understanding to which I can relate to my knowledge towards food and various cultures. In the beginning of the course I was not sure to what the course was about but now I am looking at food in a different way in aspects of a material for thought. There are so many stereotypes that we ignore but these are the myths that describe our identity. I also liked how I was very easily making associations with food, the consideration about food was so much that all the thoughts branched out in so many different directions but were never ending. I find a transformation in the way of looking at food. Earlier I used to look at food according to its taste and smell

but now after talking so much about the culture and traditions regarding the delicacies and food that we nourish I think of which nation or culture it belongs to or how it is prepared or even the ingredients. This transformation is very prominent, as today while consuming the dosa I was standing in front of the dosa stall and observing how he makes the dosa. Also when yesterday I bought the biscuits, I was looking for what is it made of and how much calorie it contains. The movie about packaging was horrifying and being a little judgmental it is necessary for all of us not to consume packaged food and make changes in our society. Because its not too late, we should acquire from the mistakes made by Americans who are now suffering from the major problems like obesity, food poisoning and deaths due to packaged food specially the meat that we consume. It’s our responsibility now and actions should be taken as soon as possible. By the end of the course I was very well aware of these practices and would want to research more on this. The sequence in which we are indulging in the things about food is letting me ponder upon things I never used to think about. And giving me a broader view of the food we consume. I find this is compulsory for each and every one of us to understand the importance of what we eat. Also we should consider the food practices and try as many meals of as many places as possible. Because I think its not the same everywhere and life is too short to taste all the global and regional cuisines. The spices and ingredients that combine together to make a fusion of nutrition, which we taste and scent becomes a different experience for us to cherish and remember. We don’t eat food from our hands; we apprize food with our mind, heart and stomach.

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Chapter 2

Food as Relegion and TraditionIt’s been experiential to slowly learn to manage things in account with the restrictions we have to face. There are a lot of limitations that we have to consider at every point of time and make sure things go smoothly. In the beginning of the day we discussed what we did the last week and analyzed our learning. The most interesting thing that I enjoyed talking about was the good quality/quantity of vegetables or meat we get in the market. Is it nutritious or the quality is manipulated? According to me, the genetically modified food is the same as the organic food we consume with some positive changes like increase in size/shape or taste, without affecting the nutrition value. Main cause of distorted food we get is only because of overuse of chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers or unhygienic conditions the crop is grown in. So I think the genetically engineered food is good for the consumers as well as the businessman. The rest of the day, we discussed about, what we have to do for the Friday food fest. Being in the Rajasthani group I planed to make the whole meal that is usually served to us in a famous traditional Rajasthan resort, Choki dhani. But realizing that the whole class is making

one platter all together with different food from all traditions I was satisfied and suggested simple delicacies of Rajasthan. But because I wanted to learn and experience a way, in which, I could coordinate and manage a large number of people, I decided to join the organizing team. Cooking is not a problem with me and at home I help my mother, so I preferred to learn about something different. And now I have to think about everything very precisely from the space to the costing and ingredients every group will be using. I’ll have to arrange for utensils and objects for organizing the whole space. I think it is not a tuff job but I’ll have to keep my calm and work in a consolidating way considering all the factors and including all the limitations. One very important thing went wrong that day. We planned on putting up posters and make coupons for the college to inform them and collect money from them. We should have finished with the posters and coupons by the afternoon so as to interact with our consumers. But they were finalized after lunch, so now we will have to be there in the college tomorrow morning to sell the coupons. Another small problem that we faced and had a huge discussion on was what if the coupons got copied or transferred to someone else without us letting know of it. An ideal solution is still doubtful, but we made an effort to overcome this problem and give it a shot. If not successful, we’ll talk about it and it will become learning for us. As we learn from our mistakes and experience only. Other small thing to create a food fest type atmosphere, we planned to add costumes or elements of their costumes from each tradition to make it look more trendy. Also we could add a small dance performance for the audience to in the starting of their meal so to create a enjoyable environment. There could be ongoing music to make the costumers feel pleasant throughout. The whole course is a very different from all the courses as one thing very important I

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am learning is how to work in such a big group of 37 people. Things I never considered were important like the price of the tomatoes in the market or how the ingredients my mother uses for making an apparently simple dish like pav bhaji or pasta are so costly, are now becoming a very essential part of my life. I expect a lot to learn from this course and I am working with all the efforts I could put in.

The preparation for the food fest was pretty interesting and a lot more interactive. We initially failed to sell our tickets. We went to many students and facilitators in the morning, but they refused to buy coupons from us. They told they were not sure if they would come or they did not want to spend so much money on the unknown meal we were randomly talking about. The simple reason why they were not buying our tickets was that we did not have a planned strategy. We thought we are not able to sell because there is a problem with the menu or no proper advertisement was done or the food was not exotic to attract people or the price was too high for students to buy or. So we had to answer the question; why would people buy our food? We were short of time. So we planned not to change the menu or the price because this was something that we all decided a day before with all our opinions and discussions. Now what was wrong was the selling strategy. So, then together the whole class settled down for only 15 minutes and talked about the strategy to attract people. 4 simple things we decided to talk about to our costumers was; the Indian traditional platter consists of food from different regions of India, its nutritive value, environment that we are creating tomorrow and the serving of the platter and finally decided to change the names of some of our dishes to attract people and somewhat hide the not-so-interesting ingredients like pea and methi from our menu. But of all, the most important thing was that the whole class was finally working together and went outside selling tickets in all the campuses. It went really well. People were actually buying the tickets and trusting us for good food. I find it very rare when everyone works together in the group. Although we are divided in different regional groups, all of us were working together, helping each other, supporting each other’s opinions and coordinating properly. This might help us gain profit and

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moreover unity. After the whole experience of working with this strategy and gaining all the money, now was to the time to allot work to everyone. There are different tasks like serving the food, cooking, cleaning, arranging the basement area, keeping an eye on what is going on and getting the utensils was given to each one of us. Everyone willingly volunteered for the tasks they preferred to do. Next was to get all the ingredients at a cheaper price. That was possible only if we buy all the ingredients together. So we sat down and discussed all the ingredients each group wants and got every ingredient in bulk, as much needed. We got it for a very less price, which was cheap enough. One person from each group went to buy the ingredients and plus some more manpower. Again we were working together and helping each other. We were having a lot of fun and in addition to that we were learning many things. Basically, we practiced to bargain. We again divided work and coordinated well. Organizing and making sure of all that was happening was one my concerns. Everyone was supporting me and telling their problems so I could ask them to do what was valid and an easy way out. My second concern was handling the whole lot of money. I am still not able to figure out how I have extra money that what I calculated. But I might figure that out tomorrow. We have already started making profit and all together are earning more that what we spent. That is something; everyone is happy and proud about. Tomorrow I think we are going to face more challenges and we have to learn more from those mistakes so as to take it forward in our life.

Delicious Indian freshly cooked full nutritive meal from all parts of the country was served on a banana leaf in a traditional style that day. The food fest was a great success. And everyone enjoyed and learned as much possible. The whole class was united and was coordinating very well. They all new their duties and were working hard at each step. We made a huge profit and we were proud of ourselves. The day started off with everyone preparing food, some students in college and some at home. They all faced minor problems but with the help of our facilitators and other classmates those problems were easily sorted out. My job was to make sure everything was going fine or not. It was smooth. I

Second Friday Food

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helped in arranging the whole area where people were supposed to sit. The proper settings complimenting with the open kitchen and sitting arrangements was attracting everyone. People were buying tickets when they saw the environment and the way we were working. It was pretty interesting to see how everyone on the basement got so involved in the process and took their responsibilities seriously. My next job was to sit and keep track of people entering and leaving and who have paid and who didn’t. I was working basically as an accountant with Mishaal Shetty who was doing his part perfectly fine. He was collecting the tickets and made sure no extra people sneak in. It become hectic at some points of time but it was a pleasure to see so many people willingly wanting to eat the food we made. The feedback was really well. Mostly all facilitators and students wrote a positive feedback but also mentioned about the small mistake, which will become an education for us and we will take care of those small things for the next time. It was breathtaking when you hear people say that they want to eat next week also or they want to bring their friends also or the quantity was filling or the food was amazingly great or they don’t wish to suggest what to eat next week, but seek to get a surprise. They were happy, so were we. I felt like the ambience created could be more interesting to attract more people. But after this response I think people will come because we have earned a popular name of “Mistresses of Spices & Masters of Kitchens – Friday Food Fest”. So now they trust us and would want to eat with us. The food was very tasty, the serving was taken care of in a proper manner and because of the open kitchen you could smell all the Indian spices. You could feel the love and hard work students put in it. Not only the meal, but also, people appreciated the coupons design and posters that were put up. Talking about the calculations, it was a tough job and I had to render some of the numbers but the

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estimates were surely taken care of at each time, exchange of money took place and no doubt the profit was way beyond our expectation. This experience was something we will remember for the rest of our lives. We somewhat also learning marketing strategy that day in addition to the basics of serving and the way we treat our costumers. One more important thing I learned was that planning and practically applying this plan are two things that are far away from each other. What we think and what happens is sometimes very much opposite. Although that day the process was planned and everything was according to it, but if a consider the minor confronts like getting extra ingredients or utensils theses were some drawbacks that we don’t actually consider while planning the meal. This has to be corrected the next week when we serve soups, salads or deserts.

Final Costing Report

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 LANGAR  

 1. Religiously  motivated  people  

working  together.    2. The  food  was  unlimited.  3. Sequential  preparation  of  food.  

 4. There  was  no  level  of  competition.  

 5. Too  many  people  working.  

 6. Properly  organized.  7. Mental  peace.  8. Work  was  coordinated.  9. Assured  with  faith.  10.  There  were  no  expectations.  11. No  one  forced  to  do  any  task.  

Everyone  was  doing  what  he  or  she  wanted  to.  

12. The  process  was  smooth.  13. Satisfactory  feelings  in  simply  

watching  people  eat  food  we  prepared.  

14. Calm  atmosphere.  15. No  greed  for  money.  16. A  rule  to  wait  for  everyone  before  

we  start  to  eat.  17. Although,  no  one  ordering  anyone,  it  

was  smooth  and  everyone  knew  what  they  had  to  do.  

18. No  one  was  judging.    

19. Food  was  not  good  looking.  20. The  served  food  was  not  hot.  21. The  food  was  served  fast.  22. There  was  a  sense  of  religious  

belongingness.  23. Management  was  proper.  24. Its  been  happening  since  a  long  time  

now.  25. Respect  for  food.  No  one  wasted  any  

food.  26. There  was  age  difference  in  people  

who  are  working.    27. 13  dishes  were  served.  

   

 

 FRIDAY  FOOD  FEST  

 1. Assignment  oriented  students  

working  individually  in  a  team.  2. The  food  was  limited.  3. Groups  preparing  different  

dishes.  4. There  was  competition  among  

the  different  groups.  5. 37  students+2  facilitators  

working.  6. Some  tasks  were  not  planned.  7. We  were  in  strain.  8. Uncertain  coordination.    9. No  faith.  10. Expected  a  lot.  11. Various  jobs  given  to  everyone.  

   

12. The  process  was  new  experience.  13. Satisfactory  in  terms  of  

appreciation  and  money.    

14. Tensed  environment.  15. Faced  unconscious  greed.  16. No  one  waited  for  anyone.  

 17. People  ordering,  there  was  some  

kind  of  fuss.    

18. Audience  and  we  judged  all  our  movements.    

19.  Food  was  good  looking.  20. Food  served  was  hot.  21. Service  was  a  bit  slow.  22. People  were  associating  with  

food  and  not  each  other.  23. Management  was  not  so  proper.  24. It  was  our  first  experience.  

 25. No  respect  for  food.  People  

wasted  a  lot  of  food.  26. Same  age  group  working  

together.  Ego  problems.    27. 6  dishes  were  served.  

CRITICAL  ANALYSIS  (LANGAR  AND  FRIDAY  FOOD  FEST)    

Critical Analysis of Langar and Friday Food Fest

Experience at the Langar

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Conclusion

This week was full of fun and enjoyment. I was able to simultaneously learn a lot. I was very excited from the beginning of the week itself. To start with I learned that whatever decision we make, we should believe in it and trust ourselves. Like we all were frustrated because we were not able to sell the tickets, so we planned to change the menu or the price, which was disrespecting our own selves. However, soon we realized certain things and came up with the idea of following a strategy and sell the tickets. I also learned that there are many restrictions that one has to consider while making food for a large number of people. There is a lot of work involving limitations that we have to plan before the final execution of the food fest. Moreover, we have to think about, things as small as the spoons for serving to people as fussy as old men. One more very important thing while working on any project is to have a backup, an option to execute if somehow the plan fails. Personally, the most basic thing I experienced was, accounting all the money exchange. I faced problems when some money was extra or some was gone, and figuring that out took a lot of time. This was the first time I managed so many calculations, and I think this involvement was important for me to experience the challenges as to take it forward in life. Also the work of allotting tasks to students of my age and class was another aspect where I was involved. There are many different perspectives, opinions, cultural differences and ego that easily clash and handling that individuality was an additional task managed by the whole class appropriately. It was interesting to observe how people work and get stubborn so easily if things are don’t drive in a proper way and some people don’t care about whatever is happening. However, there was a

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pronounced teamwork where everyone respected what the other person was doing. I really appreciate that we got all the ingredients together and coordinated very well at each step while working. The whole week we focused on the Friday food fest and I think that is one of the reason it was a success. The most incredible period of this week was Sunday. We went to a lungur in a Gurudwara at M.G. road. It was tiring and we worked hard, but working with faith where you know others do not judge you for your work was relaxing and made me feel really happy. Making food for more than 3000 people eating unlimited food for free was a gigantic responsibility. But there it looked so simple. People, who wanted to make chappatis, made chappatis. People, who wanted to clean the floor or utensils, cleaned floor or utensils respectively. People, who wanted to serve, served. People, who wanted to eat, ate. It was very smooth and an ongoing process. There was no one to boss around and no one to judge your work. Also, people of all ages were working together, helping each other, and with no one telling them what they had to do. Although I have been to a Gurudwara before, but working like this and then eating the food I made on such a large scale was a new experience and a lot of fun. Nonetheless, there were so many people working there, the environment was extremely peaceful and calm. And one thing I could relate to in the Gurudwara was to wait for everyone before we start eating, because at my house, we have this rule where everyone starts eating together. But I think the most significant difference in the meals in college and in Gurudwara was not being religious and being religious because faith plays an important role in everyone’s life.

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Chapter 3

Negotiations in food

My brain got filled with a lot of knowledge mainly about healthy food. This so started with a small discussion about the third Friday food fest. Initially we decided to make a dessert with oreo biscuits and chocolate dip but some other group was doing the same, so we finalized soup. Moreover, very less people were making the soup. Firstly, we tried to make the soup at home. It did not taste good but we wanted to give it a shot to experience the results. We finalized chilled watermelon soup with chilly and lime. Secondly, the recipe was given on the Internet and the ingredients were easily available. Also we chose cold soup because of the weather. It was something unique and we wanted to explore how people react to that. The second half of the discussion was pretty interesting. We had a talk about health food. Health food meant different things for different people. To me health food is any kind of food that is non-processed and is consumed exclusively (without addition of any ingredients, solely one single ingredient). My research says as soon as we add second ingredient to any single ingredient, they react and the final product is difficult for our body to digest. It becomes harmful for us instead of getting absorbed; it gets deposited in the body. But then comes the concept of taste and it becomes important for us to add ingredients together and make something delicious. So, it is necessary to add ingredients to make a dish taste good. Then how can we make it healthy as well as tasty at the same time? Basically, healthy food essentially has to involve study about vitamins and minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats in any food that we consume. Considering the presence of these elements in a diet can make food that is healthy and tasty. Healthy food has a different impact on every person in the world. It also depends on the metabolism of ones system. Food provides nutrition whose quantity and nutrient differs for each organism living on this planet. We consider fats to be harmful,

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but if you consider people suffering from anorexia (95% of American teenage girls suffer from this eating disorder), fats become the most important thing for them to live. Therefore, each body requires a certain amount of each type of nutrient everyday for energy and immunity. Some nutrients are essential for us to consume everyday because our body easily secretes them, some nutrients are non-essential that are already present in our body. But if essential nutrients are consumed heavily it might cause severe problems. Excess of anything is harmful. And in case of consuming food, it should always be the right amount that we intake everyday. If less, it can cause nutrient deficiency diseases and if overdosed, it can cause problems like obesity because the extra amount settles down in the body, which is harmful. Thus, simple ways to do that is to make sure that you have 800-1000 calories per day. Not more, nor less. Have a staple diet, but take 2 hours gap between each meal you consume. Limit the amount of junk and packaged food from your meal. Go to bed at a reasonable hour. This is very important as the food you eat affects your heath according to when you sleep or for how long you sleep. Have a lot of water and avoid it when you are eating. Start your day with a lot of food and decrease the amount by night. This is because when we eat in the morning, we tend to workout the whole day using the energy gained from the food. But at night the food stays in the body and affects the system. It is a sensitive issue and should be taken care of properly.

Akshaya Patra Foundation

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We went to Iskcon temple for this course, which is situated in Bangalore itself. It is a religious place, which has deities of Lord Krishna and Radha. People go there with full faith and devotion. Behind that is separate legal entity allotted to Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO providing food (mid day meal) for 1.3 million school children across 9 States and 20 locations in India. We visited the whole outlet and experienced how the food was prepared and other aspects related to that. The “Satvik” food is freashly cooked with woman workers cutting vegetables in the morning and men workers working in night. The vegetables are washed properly and the food is successfully transported to their respective schools. These workers are trained throughout the year. Also, they are given opportunities to play, draw and much more that keeps then interested in the organization and helps them build a better living. There are man-operated machines that keeps on modifying as per the need. That’s why there is a lot of manual labor. The 13 years of experience includes trial and error methods to improve technology as the food is produced on such a large scale. There are mechanisms used like the gravity flow machine and roti-making machine that can produce 60,000 rotis per hour. The containers are huge and one container can serve 1000 children at a time. A routine is set and all the tasks are properly distributed among the workers. In south, mostly sambhar, rice and curd are given as lunch. They also have varieties like curd, sweets, milk, sabji but with certain alimentary limitations. Like the taste of the food should be according to the taste the region they belong to. The meal is modified as to follow t he nutritional value provided by the government. The basic aim of this foundation is to fulfill the hungriness of poor children by providing unlimited food for education and maintaining the quality and hygiene. This also forces small children to study. The food served is edible although

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monotonous. The vegetables used are from the local pallet. They are seasonal, accessible, locally grown and sometimes organic. Health issues and environmental issues are very much a part of this organization. They are trying to go green in a few more years. They conduct quality checks, occupational health check and inspections. There is sewage treatment plant, as 1.5 lakh L water is used everyday, which is reused. There is 500 kg of waste produced everyday, which is managed in biogas plants. They are also focusing on solar energy and use of bio fertilizers. The food-produced everyday is on a very large scale and per person it costs around seven rupees and fifty-paisa. 60% of the money comes from the government including the rice, machinery and other stuff, and other trusts, NGOs and individuals who are interested donate the rest of the 40%. One major complain that Akshay Patra receives very often is about the consistency in the quality of rice which is provided by the government. However, one major initiative by the foundation that I personally appreciate is that they also work in a decentralized way, which allows housewives to prepare food for their children in small regions. In addition to this, the centralized mid day meal has been a great success. It has achieved many awards and provides a great deal for children who are deficit of food. It stared in the year 2000. That time it included only 500-1000 students. And within one year they stared serving 30,000 students. It was a marvelous initiative, because of which no child goes hungry in the country. It is a collective responsibility of the community to serve hunger and share ideas.

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Third Friday Food Fest

This was a difficult fest. People didn’t like our food, nor did we make a profit. Moreover we were certainly not coordinating as a whole class. But I think failure is something that I like to face. And being on the positive side of the scenario, the experience of not selling your food but keeping a smile on your face was wonderful. Latter half of the food fest I was not sad, I was happy because I had fun while making the soup. We initially decided to make oreo dipped in chocolate dessert, but because no other group was willing to make soup, we hopped over to soups. And the worst was we tried to make cold soup. Then we decided to add fruit to that soup. And because watermelon is cheap and easily available in the locality we finally made “chilled watermelon soup with chilly and lime”. We started with a sample, which tasted fine but not satisfactory. But then some other people tasted it, and said it has a different taste. Therefore, we took our chances and decided the make the same. It was a 50-50-chance trial because no one has ever tasted it and we didn’t know if his or her taste buds would match ours. Secondly, to get ingredients and to serve 50 people, we to the market with limited planning and got 28 kg of watermelon, chilly, green onion, lemons, apple, pomegranate and vinegar. I eat watermelon on a daily basis and the last watermelon I ate got frozen, which tasted really nice. Additionally, it’s hot outside and soup is stereotypically a hot beverage, therefore people would prefer chilled fruits. Thus, we planed to put frozen fruits in our soup as garnishing. We then took out the watermelon juice and kept the whole thing in the refrigerator for one night. Then chopped fruits and vegetables were also kept in the freezer. Next morning we took them out, mixed everything expect for the garnish. Then kept the soup

again in the fridge. We waited for 2-3 hours; meanwhile we did the decoration for a good presentation. We used apples, chilies, waste from lemons and pomegranate for this purpose. People appreciated that, but not the soup. They didn’t like the soup at all. Although one person liked it so much that she took four cups of soup from us. We knew it was not that good, and after discussing for a while we observed that the combination of watermelon with green onion didn’t go well. But it was worth trying. The class was divided into groups, which was not coordinated properly. But individually our group was very much coordinated and synchronized. We did all the tasks in an organized manner and we could easily dependent on each other. I value our teamwork more than any other aspect for this time’s Friday food fest. We faced a failure but were not sad about it because whatever it was, it was because of our hard

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work and coordination. Towards the end of the fest, we were just selling the frozen fruits, and not the soup. This was one strategy that we needed to adopt so as to compensate our expenditure. People bought frozen fruits mainly because it was hot outside and they were getting a comparatively chilled food to eat. Otherwise, this week’s Friday food fest was a flop show. Our drawback was that we didn’t consider who our target audience was. Maybe no one among us understood the real meaning of what is healthy food is or how we can make people eat healthy food. It is also because after making so much profit the last week, we have lost track or we didn’t make proper efforts to manage everything properly. We were more into the collecting money aspect of the event. Moreover, we did not manage to accommodate our previous learning into this time’s fest.

Conclusion

“People who love to eat are always the best people”. But during the course I realized that people and food have numerous connections. To know the community, we need to understand food. Likewise, to understand the food we need to understand the larger audience. We need to learn their practices, interact with them and understand the society to design according to their satisfactory needs. Moreover in this course, we interact with food and use food as the medium to interact with the people. Till now we have dealt with four communities, one ancient Karnataka practice, langar at the Gurudwara, mid day meal at Akshaya Patra foundation and the Srishti community. Understanding these communities and observing their agenda to cater a larger audience gave a basic sense of organizing relationships and a business aspect of event management. After a lot of critical analysis this week, I am very much satisfied with the course. Important things that we unknowingly learned were; food preparation, servings, advertisement, group work and dynamics, identities regarding family, cultural and region, time management, hygiene, awareness, promotion and marketing, presentation, conceptualization, quality of food, nutrition, estimation, quantity, cost, taste, atmosphere and aesthetics is an event to set the mood, anticipating everything from garbage to how many people coming, implementation and design of the event to its key detail and communicating with the customers. I am building stronger connections with food and the community. To me food was a basic need and a zip lock bag full of happiness. But now it is a larger learning that unites people around me. Food influence people to become one and builds a systematic process. And cooking on the other hand, is

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tiring, which now makes me respect what my mother cooks for me. I have realized I can’t take things for granted. We need to make some negotiations but it’s only ones target audience that we must consider. It is the customer’s happiness and target market that allows no process but a hearty initiative. The whole course is about experiential learning where there must be no blame game, no faultfinding, no bothering anyone but direct learning that should be taken forward in life. Things got unrecognized at some times but it’s our responsibility to consider all the aspects and take care of each and every element attached to food. Like while buying the ingredients we become the customers but while serving food we become vendors. Thus, there is a supply change. Moreover, the health factor was a big issue this week. It gave a basic sense to how we as designers can convince our clients to buy what we want them to buy. We need to know our market and understand our client in a group as well as individuals. I think what’s missing on my part is doing more of research and documentation. I need to gain knowledge along with the experience I am getting through this course. Many activities that we are doing are things that we usually think about but never take initiatives to do them ourselves. So I think this course is giving us a great opportunity to do what we wouldn’t do ourselves. One more very important aspect that we are getting to learn in the course is negotiating, it’s not a task but a skill that as designers we need to acquire. It should not involve fighting or arguments, but proper conversations and conclusions that all of us should agree. In all, the course suggests a good opportunity to involve in various activities that allows us to understand food and community as a whole.

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Chapter 4

Food for thought

Billon of years ago, the world was one piece of land. Over the years it drifted apart. Today it is driven back together by a global phenomenon that is making connection. That is called globalization. Food becomes a major cultural aspect that helps in globalization. Why has fast food become so successful? The simple reason is convenience. It is easy to find and easy to purchase. This is something happening globally. Let’s take an example of McDolnalds, it’s affecting our health and making people obese. There are advertisements, tempting photographs of the food that makes us eat more food. Masquerading of food is increasing on a large scale. But another major issue is transportation of food. The earth can feed only two million people at a time. But at present it is feeding 7 million people, which will increase to a 10 million by 2030. And because of globalization there is a lot of food that is wasted during transportation. If not wasted it becomes unhealthy because of the preservatives that we use. On a larger scale if we wish to consume healthy food we should only eat locally grown vegetables. At least, then we have no one to blame for our bad health. Food is a basic need, but overusing it for our benefits is becoming a big issue. I also think alcohol plays an important part in the social and cultural life of any society. We use it to make food. It is funny to look at the fact that beer was originated from Germany but today it is available rom all four corners of the world. The outcome of this whole conversation was that people are becoming lazier as saving time on food is convenient for everybody. Moreover, it is human nature to explore food. They might like it or not, but they always want to try something new, globalization allows that. Because of globalization we tend to eat food from the other parts of the world. It is mostly modified and tastes according to what our taste buds cherish. So, we see it has both positive and negativeoutcomes to it. Although, considering nature’s ease,

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globalization is more towards a bad option. We blame others for the unhealthy food that we get or even regarding the harm that we are causing to the earth. But we never understand our responsibility towards it. If we unite and protest against this, then only we can reduce globalization or adapt better options that are beneficial for everyone. But we think it’s not our responsibility but people like environmentalists or the government and also many of us don’t believe in a sustainable future, being selfish. The major cause according to me is over population and mental psychology of people that is letting all this happen. Masquerading is not bad, but could be used in a positive way to manipulate people to think big and eat healthy. If we control population and operate a system where we change man’s thought process according to what the earth needs, it will help control a lot many problem. But if we go deep into the studies, most of the foods that we commonly eat today are the product of globalization. And often a globalization that began centuries before the term came into use. So it’s like, all this started on a proper optimistic note but due to marketing and developments it is leading to something dystopian, which is still ignored by many of us. Moreover, the taste of the fast food is a part of us. We at least consume it on a weekly basis and unconsciously it resides there within us. It’s a difficult job to get rid of the fast food we have involved into because of globalization. It is a part of our life, but it is also our responsibility to make sure we eat what is healthy and what is not harming the environment. After reading about the philosophy of food, there are many things that now make sense and many mistakes that could be taken care of for the next time. The most important task while talking about food is its production and consumption. We usually relate with food only as woman’s work at house or our senses and activities. Other than that food is eschewed for all the citizens. But the course is

allowing us to go far deep into the thing that we cherish everyday. The full traditional meal “Friday food fest” was a success, but at the same time was a long lasting experience. Although, when I read the philosophy of food I realized many aspects related to food that were missing and some that could be corrected. The first was the metaphysics related to the management and knowing what exactly is to be done with all the information about nutrition, nature, culture, social good, desideratum, diet etc. in hand. This is the first principal and for the next time becomes a very important aspect to be taken care of the next time, so as to tell people what we know and how we stared. The second is the epistemology, which is the scope of knowledge we can gain before starting working of the food. It includes risks, regulations, trust and practical reasons to what we are doing. Basic reasons should be there that answer the questions about processing, packaging, cooking, accessibility of food and disposing of waste. Certain actions, good or bad are sometimes involuntary and unconscious. Like in the platter the serving was done both by girls and boys, a positive aspect that was added to our arrangements that was spontaneous and unconscious. Further, the aesthetics that was involved in the process and the final display was certainly diligent and taste was very much considered at all times. Cultural, historical, ceremonial function, customary consumptions were some more things that were mentioned in the book and unknowingly we were able to incorporate them as an intuitive effort. These are things that we often don’t ponder upon but plays a very important part while we contemplate a larger audience. Here, we talk about a food event, so taste becomes the most important of all. However the philosophy related to it says taste is universal and subjective at the same time. It becomes least reliable as soon as we start judging it on the basis of others taste because taste is a sense, a

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feeling that might be different for everyone on earth. Another aspect related to aesthetics of food is how it looks. Food and art don’t go along very well. But visually tempting food is essential for the consumer to buy it. This philosophy is used to manipulate the mind of the customers for the seller’s own profit. Lastly, technological and political aspects helps in building up the way an even is organized. On one hand, technology make things simple while on the other hand, politics brings conflicts. In the food event we organized, it was a traditional fest and thus technology didn’t play a big role. Also, initially politics was not a big issue, but after some time when people talk about other people it became a part of our food fest. Certain issues were not our concern because we do get some luxuries from college like the furniture, electricity etc. The other things that we discussed were hygiene, which includes cleaning, cooking, chilling and cross contamination and the functional properties of carbohydrate, protein and fats in food. Food poisoning was another important part that was added to our learning. It was knowledgeable and I could take my analysis forward.

Understanding local vendors

On one of the Saturdays we went for an experience that was an important task that helped us to understand how vendors work and compare the same with how we managed our fest. We chose a vender that everyone loves to go to. He sold gol gappas, which are puris served with aloo, channa, pyas, hara dhaniya, masalas and chutneys with jaljeera or shakkar water. The masalas include; red chili powder, green chili powder, black salt, salt and coriander powder. It was the same as every gol gappa stall but observing the whole situation of him working and earning was new. After talking to him for a while we got to know a lot of things about him and our favorite food. Placed in Yelahanka new town, it was fascinating to see him work.

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He said, everyday he used to wake up at six to start preparing for the day. By eight ‘o’clock he starts the preparation. The two main ingredients to make the puri were sooji and maida, which has to be mixed with water and is made into a dough. After that pieces of it are fried. After twelve o’clock he cut vegetables, boil potatoes, prepare the chutney and packs the spices. Therefore, for his stall, which opens at 4pm he has to start working at eight in the morning. His stall is on till ten in the night. He serves 5 pieces in Rs.10. The presentation of the stall was amusing. He had so many utensils on one small shack. Everything was well organized and it seemed like he was working for a long time now. Moreover, he was in a one-man business. He told us, at home he had his wife who helped him, but otherwise, he was doing all the work alone. Still he earned like Rs. 5000 per day, from which he is making a descent profit. The ingredients he used were mostly locally grown; otherwise he buys them from a wholesale market. The customers had 3 ways to go to. First, take the bowl and eat. Second, throw the leftover water in a bucket. And lastly, dump the bowl in the dustbin. Some of the customers even went to drink water that was there, near the shack. If I compare my gol gappa experience with what we did while making the soup I realize I still have a lot to learn. The experiences, the mistakes and the achievements were all that was important for me to understand.

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Conclusion

Information is not knowledge. But understanding information is gaining knowledge. This week we read and analyzed different articles related to food. All the manuscripts we read and the discussions we had, provided a very deep understanding to what our experience was from the beginning of the course. It was very interesting to know what exactly we were learning without even making any efforts of learning the same. The course made us learn almost everything related to food, from marketing strategies to hygienic aspects regarding food. We researched and documented all our understandings and processed them according to our capabilities. We even analyzed and communicated with people, trying to know their different perspectives on socio- cultural and economic information. Thus, participation becomes essential for a successful community intervention. To design for a community of a large number of people, it is very important to understand them and portray their stories through a single or multiple images. Not one person, but cumulative study of the whole community. The course provided visualizing, representing and expressing our own thoughts and improvising on them through food. I believe food was one term that was used to make us understand how communities work and coincide with their everyday meal. Thomas Keller once said, “A recipe has no soul. You as a cook must bring soul to the recipe”. Therefore, it’s basically our input and participation that is indispensable to know a particular subject, in this case a community with respect to food.

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A

Akshaya Patra Foundation 44

C

Chapter 1FOOD - MIND, HEART AND STOMATCH 11Chapter 2Food as Relegion and Tradition 25Chapter 3Negotiations in food 41Chapter 4Food for thought 55Conclusion week 1 23Conclusion week 2 38Conclusion week 3 52Conclusion week 4 63Critical Analysis of Langar and Friday Food Fest 35

E

Experience at the Langar 36

F

Final Costing Report 34First Friday Food Fest 16

I

Introduction 7

J

Janapada Loka 19

O

Objectives 9

S

Second Friday Food 30

T

Third Friday Food Fest 49

U

Understanding local vendors 60

Photography by Manpreet SIngh Aayush Amit Bhingare Akash Pradeep Monica Narang Nidhi Kulkarni Sudhanshu Dabral

Bibliography