Last April, after feeling creatively unfulfilled and balancing a freelance career, I decided to launch YSM8 (yes mate!), a series of events celebrating my Sikh-Punjabi heritage through the home-cooked food and global sounds that inspired my upbringing.
I started YSM8 because I want to educate people about the stories attached to the dishes and help teach them why sharing vegetarian food is a huge part of Sikh culture. Ultimately, YSM8 is a celebration of my identity.
Born in southeast London into a Sikh-Punjabi household, the values of oneness and equality have been instilled in me by my family and faith. Cooking, eating together and sharing stories are core pillars in my life. I’ve been learning the basics of Punjabi cooking since I was 10 years old – everything from how to roll a roti to understanding the fundamentals of a good thurka/tarka (the method of cooking your spices – don’t rush browning your onions, mate).
In my home, meals are diverse. We don’t eat Punjabi food every day but when we do, everything is created from scratch. The rotis are made from wheat flour and water. The spices are roasted and ground by hand in a pestle and mortar. When my mum has the time, she makes fresh yoghurt and ghee. Our diet is made up from wholesome lentils and beans, fresh vegetables and salads, wheat flour, pickles, yogurt and chutneys. Not forgetting the sweet treats.
Like many other BAME communities, my grandparents came to the UK from Nairobi, Kenya and had to quickly adapt to the British culture. Everything changed for them, yet their food remained the same – an expression of their identity.
To celebrate International Women's Day, I spoke to other young women of colour from different backgrounds who have found ways to use their deep relationship with food to explore, shine a light and educate others about their identities.
Click through to read.
Tanya Gohil, founder of Devi’s Street Food and Supper Club series
Tell us about Devi's... It's a celebration of culture, heritage and women through food. We are a plant-focused, female-led food concept, honouring flavours of the Silk Road. Our recipes encapsulate the osmosis of ingredients, the interconnectivity and creativity of these routes. Devi’s comes from the Sanskrit 'devi' meaning 'goddess', and serves as an ode to women in the kitchen.
How are food and culture intertwined? It’s pretty extraordinary how developed and diverse our food scene is here in London, and that’s because of its people. Whoever we are, wherever we’ve come from, now gathering and connecting, we are genuinely spoiled with the fruits of these migrations. Food from almost any culture is just a Tube ride away. It’s enhanced how much we know about each other, how much we understand each other.
It mirrors why the Silk Road is so integral to Devi’s – it’s that remarkable story about people, their movement, their voyage, their discoveries, their exchanges, the creativity of this amalgamation, and the culinary impacts of this transference; it needs to be honoured, it needs to be celebrated.
Courtesy of Devi's
Tell us how food is linked to your sense of self... As a British Indian woman, food has been fundamental in deconstructing my dual identity, in exploring and consolidating how every inch I feel Indian but simultaneously, so very British. I love hot sweet chai and Shahenshah samosas for breakfast equally as much as I love a Sunday roast at the pub. Food has helped me identify that in-between space, and find meaning of my own world. It has helped me make sense of belonging to two places at once, of embracing both, even when I’ve felt unaccepted as neither.
Yes, sometimes food is just a bit of dinner, but sometimes, it can be so much more.
What's the importance of passing recipes on through generations? Recipes are a window through time. My mother and grandmother have cooked recipes throughout my upbringing that I only want to eat when made by their hands. Their food is peppered with all the influences of their lives: Gujarat meets Nairobi meets London, from spices, greens and daals to cassava, unripe bananas and raw mango, and further still, to trifles and biscuits. It’s been important to me to absorb their journey, to observe it, to eat it, to know it.
While I try to revive this in my cooking, it’s also important to me that my recipes are kissed with the markers of my own life – growing up in northwest London eating Lebanese and Persian food, then settling in southeast London with Turkish and Sri Lankan influences on my palate. It’s these experiences that impart flavour and tell the story, and it’s this sort of culinary evolution that I find most exciting.
What's your favourite comfort food dish? Creamy, buttery, decadent mashed potato.
Courtesy of Devi's
Maria Garbutt-Lucero, founder of Baboy Club
What is Baboy Club? It's been an important way to keep in touch with my Filipino heritage and childhood in Manila. It’s all about the vibrant flavours of the tropics and family-style sharing of Asian cuisine. The Philippine islands are about as far away as you can get from London but cooking the food provides an instant connection with home.
What should people expect from Filipino food? It’s a tropical cuisine full of salty, sour and sweet flavours. Think punchy, sharp notes from tamarind, green papaya, citrus or vinegar, a ton of garlic, salty-sweet BBQ marinades on chargrilled skewers of chicken – these are quintessentially Filipino flavours. As an island nation linked by shipping trade routes to Spain, China and South America, Filipino cookery combines these influences too: adobo, soy sauce, noodles – it all got incorporated into the food. It’s also a notoriously meaty cuisine but there’s a growing vegetarian/vegan Filipino movement (check out Oh My Gulay!).
How do you express your culture through food? Food is for sharing. It’s basic sustenance but also how we express joy and togetherness. It tells us a story of cultural cross-pollination, it’s a way to understand each other by celebrating difference and commonality. You could say it's my 'love language' – I cook for friends and family.
Photographed by Eleni Stefanou
Do you think it's important for parents and grandparents to pass recipes on to their kids? Yes and no. I think it's lovely when families pass on recipes through the generations or parents teach their kids how to make food but a lot of people aren’t lucky enough to have that experience. My own family is complicated and scattered around the world. So I learned a bit from my dad when I was a child, but later had to teach myself by practising from memory, through recipes in cookbooks or online and finding techniques on YouTube. It feels empowering to find my way back to a culture I’m so far away from.
Favourite comfort food dish? BBQ all day, every day. Festive Pinoy dishes like Lechon Kawali, crispy deep-fried cubes of soy-braised pork belly and Turon, a spring roll filled with plantain, jackfruit and brown sugar, remind me of family gatherings and fiestas.
Photographed by Eleni Stefanou
Marie Mitchell, founder of Pop’s Kitchen and Island Social Club
Tell us about Pop’s Kitchen... Originally it was a supper club though now it's more of a personal exploration of my relationship with food. At Pop’s Kitchen we serve up conscious Caribbean food.
How important is it to celebrate your culture through food? I don’t think it’s necessarily important, more it’s just how food is explored in many cultures. A lot of BAME groups have traditionally come from places with less, in a commercial sense, so food was a way to celebrate that and was accessible. So that is something that has passed down through the generations, even when opportunities arise and one's situation changes.
Photographed by Chrion Cole
Does food express your identity? It [does] now. I used to be a horrifically fussy eater, so food was all about sustenance, whereas now it’s a pathway to my cultural identity.
Talk to us about passing that knowledge on to future generations. I think it’s important to find your own way in which to pass on your heritage and food is a beautiful way in which to do that subtly. It features in the everyday.
Favourite comfort food dish? Doughnuts! A much-loved guilty pleasure, though zero guilt when I have one. Delicious.
Photographed by Chrion Cole
Shakya Manage, founder of Sri Lankan Supper Club
Why did you start Sri Lankan Supper Club? Sri Lankan food is so beautiful, fresh and full of health and happiness. My memories of eating Sri Lankan food have always been gathering round friends' or family's tables, sharing an array of vibrant, mouthwatering dishes. I wanted to open up my family table to invite others to join us and share this wonderful experience.
How does food help you celebrate your heritage? When I was watching Chef’s Table, the most inspiring woman – Cristina Martinez – said something that resonated so much with me: "Through food you find home." Culture is so intangible in so many ways. Through the textures, flavours and processes we take to make food, the cultural story becomes palpable. I think the importance is really the inherent journey it takes us on to celebrate the story of the dish.
Does Sri Lankan food feed into your identity? From when my sister and I were babies, my mum didn’t make us separate baby food, she would always feed us what she ate (albeit in a more mushy form). So naturally, the comfort and growth from the food we were fed has become a strong aspect of my identity. As an adult, I have chosen to strengthen the relationship with my food and my identity. We are living in such an amazing time where so many people have the opportunity to do the same. Food is more than just sustenance for me, it also provides me with a deep comfort to my wellbeing that cannot be replaced by anything else.
Photographed by Jade Nina Sarkhel
Is it important to pass on culinary skills to the next generation? I don’t think you should rely on anyone to learn how to cook. Cooking is a way of finding yourself and your creativity, through exploring cuisines, ingredients, and a heck of a lot of trial and error too! World travel has become so fluid that naturally the cultural significance from one generation to the next will change. I think what is important is to bring a part of your story or memory through to the next generation, reflected in a dish or meal that means something to you.
Favourite comfort dish? I’m thinking Marie Kondo’s rule of what "sparks joy" can be applied to food too. Predictably, it has to be any Sri Lankan food made by Ammie. Whatever she touches genuinely turns to gold. I particularly love a traditional Sinhalese meal of fragrant rice, surrounded by five or six curries, fresh sambols and salads. We traditionally eat this with our hand, which gives you the most magical explosion of flavours in your mouth.
Photographed by Jade Nina Sarkhel
Jenny Phung, founder of Ling Ling’s Supper Club
What food does Ling Ling’s serve up? An ever changing menu inspired by my Chinese and Vietnamese heritage. I cook up reimagined classics and use food to tell my story. The dishes have all been created as a result of collaborations with independent businesses or trying new foods. It's like the dishes are my food memories from each pop-up, supper club or residency I have completed.
Why is it important to be celebrating Chinese and Vietnamese culture in this way? I started cooking because I wanted to show a different version of Chinese food in the UK. It seems that Chinese takeaways and restaurants have become stagnant and are losing popularity and I wanted to update it. I'm British born so while there is a familiarity, when it comes to my dishes it's my take on my heritage. I am so proud to be Chinese and I want to reflect that within my dishes.
Is your identity linked to food? I would say perhaps the more I cook, the more it's becoming a very important part of my identity. I am constantly researching, finding ways to improve my technique and creating new dishes drawing from my experiences to create original dishes that are an accumulation of me at that moment in time.
Photo via @ling_lings_
Did your grandparents pass down recipes? Yes. I wish I was more involved with food when I was younger but I still have vivid food memories of my grandparents painstakingly cooking everything from scratch and not wasting a thing. This had a massive impact on me and I now cook the same way. I am lucky to have two amazing chefs as parents so I have learned a lot from them.
Favourite comfort food dish? I love any type of noodle broth with lots of herbs and chilli. My favourites are Pho, Bun bo Hue and Tofu broth. I also love chips! Any type of chips and I’m happy.
Courtesy Of Ling Ling's
Nisrin Abuorf, founder of Zaad Dinner Club
Tell us about Zaad... Zaad means 'nourishing food' in Arabic. It is a Palestinian supper club offering Londoners an authentic taste of Palestine, combining both traditional recipes and modern takes on classics. As a second generation Palestinian refugee, nothing connects more to my Palestinian heritage than Palestinian food, and my late grandmother's stories of Yafa’s orange groves are all I know and cherish of a lost homeland.
What does it mean for you to see Palestinian culture celebrated through food? Our culture and heritage is what we hang on to to survive, especially under immense waves of cultural appropriation. It is important for me as a Palestinian to champion our food and our heritage and call things by their name; it’s Maftoul, not Israeli couscous.
Photographed by Joe-Atwere
How have the generations before you influenced your cooking? My main food influence is my maternal grandmother and her coastal cuisine, she passed it on to my mother and I am eternally guided by their flavours.
What is your favourite comfort food? Fatteh, a bread-based dish with aubergine or chicken or even hummus and a garlicky yoghurt sauce. Divine!
Photographed by Sara-Jane-McCabeLike what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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