serving-up | Hiren Laxman | undefined
The brilliant writer and broadcaster Yasmin Khan has written a great foreword for Serving Up, and ahead of its release, we thought you might like to read an extract. We hope you like it.
“Social narratives are political constructs, too often created and curated in today’s society for the benefit of a privileged few. The way we perceive food culture is a product of these wider societal narratives. The hospitality industry and food media are no different to any other part of contemporary society – they carry with them the residue of centuries of imperialism, colonialism and capitalist hegemony.
In order to evolve towards a more just and equitable society for all, we need to open up the space to discuss how these industries might be decolonized, deconstructed and - most importantly – reimagined.
As the Kenyan analyst Joe Kobuthi has noted, “food has always been a fundamental tool in the process of colonisation. Through food, social and cultural norms are conveyed and also violated.
Today, the legacy of this plays out not only in who gets to talk, write and cook the food we eat, but also how we each of us experience the multitude of diverse culinary traditions that exist in this world.”
