Listen to Stories from our Immigrant Food Writing Workshop

In October 2015, The Culinary Trust launched a new food writing program with an action-packed multimedia journalism workshop, “Food in 2 Worlds,” which focused on telling immigrant food stories using sound.

A diverse group of 12 journalists traveled to New York from near and far including from San Francisco, Austin, Charleston and Calgary, and represented cultures from around the world – Mexico, China, The Philippines and Rwanda among others.

All the participants worked on their stories throughout the weekend with the workshop staff, developing characters and visualizing scenes. The workshop culminated in a pitch panel with participants pitching their ideas to an impressive group of highly engaged radio editors. Panelists gave the writers candid feedback and several participants ended the workshop with assignment from NPR and Public Radio International.

Teams hit the vibrant streets of New York to practice interview techniques and capture sounds and voices on the recording equipment; they also learned basic audio production. The afternoon spilled into the evening for some participants as they climbed a steep learning curve for the editing software and pieced together the words and sounds of their stories.

IACP Members and The Culinary Trust Professional Development Grant Recipients were among the presenters and participants: Kathy Gunst, resident chef of NPR’s Here and Now Kathy Gunst, presented.; Marge Perry, writer, chef and educator attended; and, Kenrick Mercado, chef, writer and prior TCT grant recipient traveled from the west coast. TCT board of trustees Kathleen Flinn monitored the weekend with Alexa Van de Walle, author of this article.

The workshop was the first of a series of offerings from The Trust’s new partnership with The New School’s award winning “Feet in 2 Worlds” the 10-year old radio and web journalism project, led by IACP Conference Workshop Leader, John Rudolph, and took place over two and a half days in mid-October. The Trust’s food writing programs are funded in part with a generous grant from The Julia Child Foundation.

The Culinary Trust will be offering another Food in Two Worlds training in spring 2017. In the meantime, listen to the stories from the 2015 workshop.

NPR’s The Salt & Feet in 2 Worlds
> LISTEN: ‘Eat Up’: How Cultural Messages Can Lead To Eating Disorders
> READ: Feet in 2 World’s Fall Food Issue by Carmen Cusido

PRI’s The World
> LISTEN: “If you’re in Killeen Texas, try the kimchee or bibimbap” by Veronica Zaragovia

Cowbird
> LISTEN: Home tastes like …

PRI’s The World & Feet in 2 Worlds
> LISTEN: For African Cooks One New Jersey Farmer Has What They Need on PRI
> READ: Feet in 2 World’s Fall Food Issue by Tiziana Rinaldi

Okayafrica
Through the workshop we met Burundian journalist Placide Magambo who we then connected with the website Okayafrica. Placide has contributed two articles to the site so far.
> Crisis In Burundi: The Activist Family Targeted For Assassination
> Burundi Never Again: New York Vigil Calls For Intervention

> To Donate to the Trust’s ongoing Food Writing Program CLICK HERE

> Read The New School’s Food in 2 Worlds Magazine
> Applications Open for Food Writing Fellowships Across the U.S. in December