Multicultural Cooking Workshop 2010
Five nights of cookery workshops took place in Neath Port Talbot with the aim of integrating different local communities within Neath Port Talbot through food. For each of the five nights, five local chefs were invited to demonstrate food from their culture. Recipe cards were distributed to all participants and spectators each night and there was a final question and answer session with the chef at the end of each event.
Over the five nights of cookery workshops we had two Indian Chefs, one Thai (provided by Neath Port Talbot College), one Welsh and a Chinese chef. On the night each of the chefs explained the history behind their dish, where and how the dish originated and when the dish was usually cooked and the special religious or cultural significance of the dishes. Each chef also explained the health benefits of the ingredients used and where the ingredients could be found.
The participants and spectators came from the Neath Port Talbot community. They came from diverse walks of life and cultures. There were Welsh, Bangladeshi, Czechoslovakian, Pakistani, South African, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese and Indian people who attended the event.
Question and answer sessions and verbal feedback from the participants were very positive. They were willing to go home and try the dishes they had cooked or had observed being cooked at the workshops. Some of the participants who took part in the workshop did not generally cook at home but were willing to have a go and try out the new skills they had learnt. Some of the spectators and participants asked advice from the chefs about modifying the dishes to suit their pallet; moreover one of the participants was a vegetarian and so the chef explained how the dish could be adapted to meet their needs.
This event marks the second of three events that Neath Port Talbot Tigers have put together with the help of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and the Welsh Assembly Government Community Cohesion Fund.
Want to try out the recipes yourself? Click here for all the recipe cards.
Below shows some of the images taken from the evening (click to enlarge).
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