Bristol Goes on the Food Journey of a Lifetime

A new project to celebrate Bristol’s rich cultural diversity promises to serve up a culinary treat – by encouraging local people to share the foods and recipes that reflect their heritage and their daily diet.

“91 Ways to Build a Global City” – so called because that is the estimated number of languages and dialects spoken by the people of Bristol - is being officially launched in June. A whole series of events is planned for the coming months to show and share those foods – helping communities to connect with each other as well as celebrate their cultural differences. 

Leading up to then, the organisers are asking Bristolians to mail, email and post on Facebook the dishes that define their roots.

“Language and food are both strong symbols of social identity,” says Kalpna Woolf, who heads up 91 Ways. “But while language can sometimes act as a barrier, food is a universal language that can bring people together.

“In recent decades, appreciating the foods from other cultures has also helped to break down barriers between communities. 91 Ways will build on the power of food to bring people together.

“But there is also a strong strand of sustainability that we want to develop too. The food we eat, as well as how we source and transport it, has major environmental implications.

“So a big part of the project will focus on sharing knowledge about where our ingredients come from, encouraging people to buy and prepare unprocessed foods from sustainable sources, as well as providing the means for more of us to ‘grow our own’ – perhaps opening up more allotments and converting courtyard gardens into places to cultivate spices and herbs.”

All of us, says Kalpna, make something of a “food journey” during our lives as we move from our family home and start to absorb other influences – and this is another aspect which 91 Ways wants to capture. “Many older people in Bristol, brought up on traditional English meals, will vividly remember the first time they tried a pizza, curry or kebab – now staples of our diet – and remember how exotic it all seemed then to try foods from different countries.

“The food I eat now has changed significantly from when I was a small girl growing up in Southall,” she says. “There the ingredients of every meal were bought fresh every day from our local shops. And of course we cooked with ghee – which many of us have now exchanged for olive oil.

“We will also be engaging with local food suppliers and retailers as well as using the opportunity to connect schools and get people from different generations to talk and cook together.”

By aggregating and sharing the knowledge and memories of the people of Bristol, 91 Ways hopes to create a modern social history through food as well as help all of us better understand how different communities live in a modern day global city.

To find out more, or to take part in 91 Ways, go to: http://91ways.org/. And you can post your recipes thoughts and memories on http://on.fb.me/1y2ajIi .

91 Ways is supported by a diverse group of individuals and communities including the Bristol Initiative Charitable Trust.