Roaming Roots: tales and tastes from a TCK kitchen ~ Jasmine Fenwick
Project details
- Year
- 2024
- Programme
- Bachelor – Illustration
- Practices
- Honours Programme
- Minor
- RASL Re-Imagining Tomorrow Through Arts and Sciences
This is my final practical submission for my Graduation Project for Willem De Kooning Academie. Inspired by my love for cooking and food, this was a passion project of mine that realised one of my childhood dreams of being an author and a chef.
‘Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are individuals raised in cultures different from their parents’ or their country of nationality, often experiencing a diverse array of cultural influences throughout their upbringing.’ ~ Ruth Useem
TCKs naturally use fusion cuisine as a strategy to consolidate their cultural identities into personalised, hybrid identities. To construct their identities, Third Culture Kids require a conciliation between their potentially competing cultural influences. Food happens to be a powerful medium of cultural expression. Fusion cuisine is therefore an effective means for TCKs to satisfy their need for cultural synthesis. For example, fusion food serves as an ideal way for me to connect with my cultural identities. I grew up with my stepfather bringing his English and western knowledge to the dining table while my mum brought Asian and Malaysian foods to the table.
My research also touched on my curiosity on authenticity and what authenticity means as someone who identifies as a TCK, so I started focusing on what is authenticity and who defines what ‘authentic’ is. But if it’s by what people perceive as accurate, what is my authentic? If we all have our own interpretations of ‘authenticity’ how can I bring out these different perspectives in TCK cuisine.
Using fusion cuisine recipes that are premade is good, however the goal is to encourage the reader to be able to make their own fusion dishes personalised to their own experiences, culture and flavour profile through intuitive practices. My book is designed to help home cooks bring out their intuition in the kitchen to be able to create their own fusion dishes connected to their cultures.
Please enjoy the my recipe book Roaming Roots
