Course Abstract

This online course, aimed at lay people interested in the food writing genre, brings together experts in the field, to discuss the various lenses through which we engage with food as a society, and the main forms of food writing as they have evolved over the last two hundred years.

Duration: 8 weeks
Frequency: Every Tuesday from March 14, 5:30 pm - 7 pm
Format: Interactive real-time lecture and discussion coordinated by course anchors.
Pre-requisite: English proficiency in reading and writing, interest in food writing as a genre
Level: Introductory
Fees: INR 5000 + GST

To take this course, please visit the Registration Portal.

Registration Portal

Course Objective

The course intends to expose students to the manifold ways in which we engage with food as a society and connect this exposure to the main forms of food writing. In the process, students will have the opportunity to experiment with these different forms.

Course Outline

Section I
Engaging with Food

March 14, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Eating the Environment
The massive role what we eat plays in creating and affecting ecologies, including but not limited to impacts on biodiversity and farming practices. What we eat has a direct impact on everything from climate change to the way the planet will be in the future.

March 21, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Archaeology to Archives
How we ate in the past has become an ever-growing topic of interest. This session aims to provide a historical perspective on food cultures and how we understand our own in comparison.

March 28, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Ingredient Driven
Food can be a fascinating starting point to get to know the world, and ingredients are central to this, ranging from cultural taboos or preferences, to differing ways in which they are treated in different cultures.

April 4, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Food as a Commodity
Apart from everything else, food is produced to be bought, sold, traded and transported. We tend to overlook the economic pressures exerted on the production of the ingredients themselves. How do we understand the transformation of food into commodity?

Section II
Types of Food Writing

Each class will have a leading professional from these genres giving a lecture on the topic. Students can write a short piece in the style of the week, to be shared for peer feedback.

April 11, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Memoir

April 18, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Criticism and Reviews

April 25, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Recipes and Cookbooks

May 2, 5:30 pm - 7 pm: Visualisation

Course Outcomes

On completion of the course, the student will be able to:

Describe different kinds of food writing
Compare and contrast the types of food writing
Write a short piece using at least one lens and one style of writing.

Pedagogy

Each session will be part in the lecture and part in the question-answer format. There will be several guest lecturers, facilitated by the instructors from Edible Archives.

Assessment Tasks

There will be in-class group writing in every session. Participants will write short paragraphs in response to prompts from the instructor and get feedback right away. There is a final essay due at the end of the course, in Week 8. For those wanting a Certificate of Completion, the final essay is mandatory and must be submitted by the deadline, which is 5 pm on May 9, 2023. There will be no extensions.

People

ANUMITRA GHOSH DASTIDAR

Professional Chef
Co-Founder, Edible Archives

Edible Archives is a sustainable restaurant based in Goa that showcases the diversity and possibilities of India's indigenous food culture. While working with various cuisines, including Japanese, Thai and regional Indian, Anumitra came up with the unique concept of an ingredient-driven restaurant, where she can experiment with ingredients of indigenous origin and their flavours. She has worked with the Diva group of fine dining restaurants in New Delhi, where she was also the owner and chef of Big Bongg Theory, a modern Bengali restaurant and of Bento Bong, an annual Bengali food stall, for three consecutive years. She holds a PhD in Cognitive Linguistics from the University of Delhi, and aims to combine her research experience with sustainable food practices.

SHALINI KRISHAN

Co-Founder, Edible Archives

Edible Archives is a restaurant with a vision for sustainability as a practice in the food and beverage industry. She has been an editor in independent Indian publishing houses for 12 years; her detailed work on books about health, nutrition, queer and feminist politics and the environment led to her interest in questions of inclusive sustainability, the circular nature of food systems and biodiversity. She heads the research Edible Archives carries out on indigenous ingredients and the food cultures surrounding them. She has created a permaculture garden, with the twin aims of creating a sustainable growing loop, as well as saving and sharing indigenous seeds.

Registration

To take this course, please visit the Registration Portal.

Registration Portal

For any queries, please contact

Astha Adesara
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +91.9205065677

How to Write about Food