As season 9 of the podcast draws to a close, it’s feeling like a full circle moment thematically. The conversations began this season around what it means to value labour, specifically whose labour is and isn’t valued to power a global food supply, and an exposé of the cruel treatment of migrant workers coming to the U.S. But the process of migrating, and the experiences that come with it, are incredibly important stories. What does it mean to carry culture through food when you’ve been displaced, and how can food serve as the foundation to continue resilience and pass along important cultural heritage through recipes? I spoke with Hawa Hassan today to explore these questions.

Hawa is a James Beard Award winner and culinary triple threat: dynamic chef, TV personality, and entrepreneur. She's the founder of Basbaas, a line of sauce and condiments inspired by her home country of Somalia, a fast-growing brand that has been featured in Forbes, the New York Times, Eater, and more. Her first cookbook-meets-travelogue, In Bibi's Kitchen, shares recipes and stories from grandmothers—or bibis—in eight African countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

In our conversation, Hawa talks about her latest cookbook, Setting a Place for Us, and how she built this stunning series of recipes from eight countries impacted by war and conflict. Hawa explores how she structured the recipes for the pantry, working with photographers and local experts to shape the stories conveyed through the recipes, and the importance of challenging single-origin stories about conflict and its impact on culture, food, and identity.

Learn More from Hawa:

• Buy Setting a Place for Us Cookbook

• Instagram: @hawahassan

The idea of a pristine kitchen with clean countertops feels distinctively American, or an all-American idealist. However, the concept of the American ideal, or the American dream, desperately needs to be challenged. How better to do that than through food? My guest this week, author and filmmaker Jill Damatac, does just that in her new memoir, Dirty Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family.

Jill was born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and is now a UK citizen living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide; her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland’s Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London. Her new book, Dirty Kitchen, is a food memoir of 22 years undocumented in the United States.

In today’s episode, we explore her memoir as a unique narrative that combines recipes, Filipino histories and mythologies, American immigration experiences, food writing, and personal narratives. Jill describes how she structured the book, how Filipino diasporic recipes relate to diasporic and migrant experiences, and the relationship between American foods and rebuilding a sense of self through Filipino foods after living undocumented for many years.

Resources:

• Buy Dirty Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family
• Website: https://www.jilldamatac.com/
• Instagram: @jilldamatac

Perhaps now more than ever, there’s renewed appreciation for the intricacies of our food systems' deep dependence on a global supply chain. However, that also raises challenges around our relationships with producers and understanding of food value. My guest today, Colin Fontaine, is here to discuss how to reorient American concepts of food and culture to be grounded in seasonal and local approaches.

Colin examines food production solutions to achieve more local and seasonal foods, arguing that this issue is more of a cultural problem in need of cultural solutions. Colin has worked in produce procurement, including wholesale distribution, and as an East Coast local produce category manager for Sprouts Farmers Market.

Colin is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Bridgewater State University. Through his newsletter Northeast Cuisine, Colin writes about how to localize the food system in the northeastern US, considering past, present, and future lessons about the region and its climate, producers, cultures, and produce availability to build a better and more equitable food system.

Learn More About Colin:

• Newsletter: Northeast Cuisine
• Instagram: @northeastcuisine