Behind the Scenes - Food Demonstrations and Tasters
We are getting ready for our first Culture Festival in July (14:00-16:30)! So many members of our community are working together to make sure the event is a huge success.
In addition to the live performances, games and stalls we are excited to be offering a taste of our community through our parent and student led food demonstrations and tasters which will provide a window into the cuisine of multiple cultures. You will be able to try some amazing food and learn about the specific ingredients involved - you may well be inspired to try a new recipe!
Our student leadership group and parents who are kindly involved in organising food demonstrations have given their reflection on the experience:
Kenni (Lower Sixth): “The Culture Festival is a fantastic opportunity to display and show how proud we are of the beautiful and vibrant variety of countries and cultures within our school community. This event has been a great chance to connect everyone together and help develop skills for all students. Currently we are organising how we aim to decorate our area for the food demos. We hope to see as many students, parents and staff as possible at the Culture Fest!’
BGS parent, Mrs Mehmood: "I will be making Punjabi street food of Pakistan. I feel it is very important that as a community we stay connected with our roots and I am very delighted that BGS is providing this opportunity for students and their families to represent their culture. As well as representing our Pakistani background, I am looking forward to meeting other communities and learning about their cultures. To represent our beautiful Pakistani background, I have chosen two Punjabi vegetarian street food dishes. We grew up eating these street snacks but I am reconstructing these dishes in my style, same flavours but new look, hope you will enjoy these dishes."
BGS parent, Mrs Watt added: “I’m really excited to get the opportunity to share some Japanese dishes at the upcoming Culture Festival. Food is a HUGE part of my culture. If you ever get the opportunity to visit Japan, you’ll see that food is incredibly important to Japanese people and is ever-present wherever you go or whatever you do. When we’re not eating, we’re thinking about what to eat next! When I first arrived to the UK back in the early 2000s, you could find Japanese food but not everywhere like you can now. I don’t think anyone knew what a Katsu Curry or Gyoza was back then… At the Festival, I’ll be sharing how to make ‘Temaki zushi’, which translates as hand-rolled sushi. It’s something easy enough for children to make – simple but really tasty.”
BGS Parent, Mrs Ganguli: ‘I have chosen to share some traditional vegetarian West Bengal recipes for the Culture Festival. While sitting down for a meal Bengalis love to have a good chat; this is such a famous trait it even has its own name "Adda"- you name it Bengali's will have an opinion on it! It was really only in recent years that I took an interest in learning how to cook, and in particular dishes from India and from my state - West Bengal. The driving force for learning to cook became stronger still when my late mother was diagnosed with terminal cardiac failure in 2019, in the final two years of Ma's life knowing that she was to pass away, she and I spent our time ensuring that all her recipes were written down so as not to be forgotten and so I could pass them down to her grandchildren - Ishani and Shreyan, so every time I cook it is a sweet reminder of the time I spent immortalising her recipes, and I am so glad to be sharing some of these recipes with the BGS family at the Culture Day.’
Nawaal (Year 9) reflected: “I believe that representing our cultural foods holds a large level of importance as there is a lot of stigma based around the smell, taste or nature of our foods- and I’ve received backlash about the kinds of food I eat as a Pakistani. Also, our food has been colonised and remade into western foods without proper acknowledgement of their heritage especially as chicken tikka is the national dish of England, therefore I think that this is a good opportunity to spread our culture and educate others!”
See the Food Demonstrations poster here.
For those who would still like to be involved in a foodie element of the day why not take part in our Big BGS Bake Off and give an insight into your culture. Please complete the form here, to submit your participation.
See the Bake Off poster here.
