My Culinary Influences

Where are you from?

A question I’ve often been asked especially given my name and face don’t quite match, which leaves people somewhat perplexed. I let them guess for a while, with the commonest answers placing me anywhere from Portugal, Italy and Greece to Egypt, Morocco and the Middle East. No one has every guessed correctly and I suspect it’s because my blend of heritages is rather unique.

My culture splits me across two continents, from countries and localities that couldn’t be further apart in terms of climate, scenery, religion or food. Yet somehow there exists similarities in cultural practices and values across both sides of my family, which have blended so wonderfully together. On either side, food has always been a centre focus, bringing everyone together in good times and bad. It’s often a hot topic of conversation, the kitchen in any of our households is always a hub of activity and there has never been a time when any person has left hungry. In short, we are a family of feeders who will cook far in excess of what’s necessary for a family gathering “just in case” but also send everyone home with leftovers so no morsel ever goes to waste.

So where do my culinary influences come from? There’s North Indian cuisine with a blend of East African twists on my Dad’s side and the joys of Austrian sweet and savoury dishes on my Mum’s. The food we enjoy is well loved by all and increasingly recipes and traditions have actually migrated from one side of my family to the other in both directions! My paternal cousins have started to bake traditional Austrian cookies at Christmas and my maternal relatives love eating Indian food when we meet.

The influence of these distinctly different cuisines has often led to an element of fusion between the two; experimenting with unconventional flavours, incorporating unexpected spices and constantly shaping my cooking style.

They say that food brings people together… I think I’d agree! Does your cultural background stem from different places? I’d love to hear how it’s shaped your food experiences and what you love or dislike about it.