Diversity At The Table

By LaTasha Washington

Diversity At The Table

Open Ended

Have you ever had food outside of your culture? (No, Taco Bell Does Not Count)

Food Festivals

Food festivals are more than a pleasure for the senses. They're also a delicious way for people to share their own culture and learn about others.

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What is Culture?

* Culture is a set of customs, traditions, and beliefs shared by a large group of people.

​*Through Culture, a group's identity is defined.

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What is culture (cont..)

When people move around the world, they carry culture with them and pass it on to new generations. in this way those with a common history or heritage preserve their culture in new settings.

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What is culture (Cont...)

Ethnic: You'll hear the term ethic used to describe cultures. Ethnic food describes food that is typical of a culture.

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Food and Culture

As you learn about the foods of different cultures, you'll hear the word cuisine

​​Cuisine refers to a culture's representative foods and the specific styles for preparing them.

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Food and Culture cont..

A custom is an established practice that is repeated over time. Food customs include how and when foods are eaten. In some cultures they eat dinner midday. Some, in the evening.

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Influences on Cuisines and Customs

Cuisines and food customs are shaped by influences both inside and outside of a society.

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Open Ended

Does your family have any food customs? If so, what are they?

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Geography

For much of history, geographic location determined diet. Geography--climate, soil, and amount of sunlight---influenced growing conditions, ad people at what could grow locally.

​Staple Foods: most widely produced and eaten foods in an area.

Economics

​Until recent times, the wealthy dined on fattened meat and fowl and a choice of fresh fruits and vegetables.

​Meals for common people consisted of porridges and dark breads.

​Economics Cont....

Given economic hardship, cooks grew resourceful in adding variety to meals.

• ​Ex. Pig's feet and oxtails were cooked into stews.

​ Recipes created out of economic necessity are still popular today. Some of these include meatloaf, chicken noodle soup, mashed potatoes.

​Foreign Contacts

​Did you know that bagels and cheesecake were "Foreign Foods?"

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​Yes, when Jewish people immigrated from Eastern Europe and Russia, they shared a rich cooking tradition that included bagels and cheesecake!

​Foreign Contact con...

• ​Immigration is one even that promotes food borrowing. Exploration is another.

• ​Explorers discovered new routes to Asia and trade increased. Tea which was popular in China arrived in Europe early in the 17th century.

• ​Wars and and conquest had a similar impact.

​Religious Beliefs

​Many religions, directly or indirectly, teach about the use of food.

​Hindus do not eat beef because they consider cattle to be sacred animals.​

​"Keeping Kosher" in the Jewish faith requires that some foods be prepared in certain ways and that some food be avoided altogether.

​Fasting

​Or abstaining from all or certain foods for a period of time, is a practice in some religions.

​**Catholics fast or refrain from eating meat on some holy days.

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​**During Ramadan, a month long religious observance, Muslims neither eat nor drink during daylight hours.

​Technology

• ​Some may say that microwaves has had the biggest impact on food cuisines and customs.

• ​Grandparents may say "Electricity" has had the biggest impact.

• ​Appliances and many other innovations not only increased food choices, but they also helped move cooking methods beyond the bare basics.

​Similarities in Global Cuisines

​Although cuisines and food customs developed independently in different cultures, similarities are noticeable.

​Are chinese rice noodles really much different from Italian spaghetti?

​Similarities in Global Cuisines cont...

​The same principles of preparing food apply in every culture, and people the world over have the same basic needs that foods meet.

​Preparation Methods

​In many cuisines similar preparation methods arose in different locations. For Ex., all cultures learn to grind grains into flour. Cooks mixed the flour with water to make dough, which they shaped into breads, rolls, and noodles.

​Social Meanings

Food plays a symbolic role in social activities the world over. It is a universal sign of hospitality.

​* In some cultures the "care and feeding" of guests is a duty, with precise customs related to entertaining.

​Food Customs Today (Maintaining Food Customs)

• ​Some food customs are handed down as a matter of cultural pride.

• ​In the Mexican tradition, for example, tamales are made by spreading the tamale dough on cornhusks then folding the husks over filling.

• ​Keeping customs can provide a sense of cultural security.

​Changing Food Customs

​With so many modern methods to process, transport, and store foods, the supermarket is increasingly a global market, Foods can be flown thousands of miles in a few hours, so Florida oranges can be sold fresh in Norwegian groceries.

​Changing Food Customs...Cont...

​The trend of experimenting with foreign cuisines has given rise to a new school of cooking called Fusion Cuisine. With it, new recipes are created by mixing the influences of different food traditions

​Food Customs in the U.S.

• ​The United States has become home to people of countless ethnic background. This cultural blend is often called a "melting pot."

• ​Restaurants featuring ethnic cuisines are gaining in popularity.

• ​If you start with curried chicken and rice and finish with a slice of Black Forest cake, you've sampled cuisines in India, China, and Germany.