Food manuscript

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foodfoodMuch more than what we know...
Mistresses of Spices & Masters of Kitchens
Communities and Practices
Srishti School of Art,
Design and Technology

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foodMuch more than what we know...
Arushi Gupta
Mistresses of Spices & Masters of Kitchens
Communities and Practices
Srishti School of Art,
Design and Technology
April 2014

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Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
6.
5.
7.
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41
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11
9
Page
Introduction
Objective
Food-mind, heart and stomach
Food as religion and tradition
Bibliography
Food for thought
Negotiations in food

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Introduction
Do we often think about food? This book takes you to
my journey that talks about not only food but also its
associations with different things revolving round it. The
book is the outcome of the learning process of one of
the courses offered by Srishti School of Art, Design and
Technology. The course is called, ”Mistresses of Spices &
Masters of Kitchens”. It was about the importance of food
in our lives as well as communities and practices that we
are a part of. The book is in a simple format comprising
of seven chapters. In addition to the objective, chapter
number 3,4,5 and 6 represent the 4 weeks respectively
of all activities in which we were involved, followed by
bibliography.

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Objectives
-To understand the self as part of a community.
-To Conduct research and documentation.
-To analyze and communicate different perspectives on
socio- cultural and economic information. 
-To understand that negotiation is a skill acquired.

11
Chapter 1
FOOD - MIND, HEART
AND STOMACH
“
Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like”
by Mark Twin is a well-said quote. But how exactly do we
like food that we like? Is it how it looks, smells or fairly
tastes? Is it what others tell you, is what you like or is it
only your conscience? My opinion to this is food’s aesthetic,
artistic and culinary value tells you, if you like it or not. Being a
biology student, food for me is any nutritious substance digested
by a body in order to maintain life and growth. But for people,
since civilization, it has become a very big part of their life and
is much more than a source for nutrition. It is something that
associates with them. They are known by the food they eat. It
has now become a language that communicates through your
eyes, tongue, nose and even ears. So when you go to different
places in the world the sensibility don’t change, the approach
and the way people associate themselves with food changes. Like
in India we believe we should eat all the food that is served to us,
but in china they believe finishing the served food is disrespect
to the chief. Or chicken is considered as vegetarian in foreign
countries but not in India. These are the small things that define

where you belong and who you are. While people around you
might have misconceptions about your lifestyle, its also their
believes that make you what you are or aren’t. For example,
Indians are vegetarians or they make only spicy food or they
eat with hands or they always have sweets or they put excess
of oil in their food. It’s not an accurate representation of what
Indian food or how Indians really are. In fact, each region in
India has its own style of cooking and serving. In Punjab they
ask “tusi khade si?” and serve sarso ka saag and makki di roti.
In Rajasthan they “jeemo sa” and serve daal bati churma. In
Bengal, they ask “khabar khate” and serve fish and sweets. In
Maharashtra, they speak Marathi and ask “jaivan karnarka?”
and serve surmai, wada pao and other different dishes. They
are all cooked, served and eaten differently in different parts of
India. So again we are identified and divided by the language of
food. It reminds me how I relate different places to food. These
are some more stereotypes about other countries that might
not be true. Correspondingly, in Africa, people die because of
lack of nutrition. And in contrast, people in America die due to
obesity. After all food is not always the good source to maintain
our health. Overused or underused, it becomes harmful for us.
Fast food, junk food and local cuisines are becoming everyday
food for many people. It is not healthy and cause problems for
them. On the other hand organic food comes into action, which
very less people prefer. They say it doesn’t taste good. I feel this
is psychological, and a rumor spread by commercial people to
make people buy their food over a period of time. But in Indian
traditions, people very much like food cooked at home. And
told by their ancestors to have food cooked at home. And I love
freshly cooked Indian food. And this movie that we saw one day
“Today’s special” was all about Indian food. Directed by David
Kaplan this movie is a comedy film that talks about how we

13
realize things that we don’t know about ourselves. The film
revolves around a chief who works in London. He gets fired and
then he builds up his own Indian restaurant in the city, which
is rated as the best Indian restaurant in London. The food he
cooked was made with Indian spices and as my parents say, lot
of love. This again brings us to this fact that food unites two
places or religions. Food is not only an art of cooking, but a lot
more. It is what makes us, physically, culturally and socially.

“No man in the world has more courage than the man who can
stop after eating one peanut”. We all love food and once we start
eating something, we go on eating that dish if we really like it.
But for every individual the preferences for food are different.
Somewhat it is pretty interesting to understand how people
with certain taste like certain dishes only. Maybe the ones,
which have almost same spices or sometimes it depends only
on their mood. I did a survey in my family and found some
peculiar things. Like my grandmother likes food she is eating
since childhood and has developed a taste for that kind of food.
So she usually doesn’t prefer eating what we like to eat. On the
other hand, my sister likes mostly Italian and refuses to even
taste traditional food. Also mostly all adults in my family like
traditional food but people in my generation like junk food
mostly.Whyisthisthatwedon’tliketraditionalfoodbutwestern
food more? I think availability of the dish and the ingredients
of the dish decide what kind of food we might like. I think an
individual likes certain spices, which make their taste buds go
wild, and they desire to have dishes with those spices mostly. In
my family, my grandmother’s and father’s/uncle’s choice of food
was similar so this might be because of genetic similarities or
just their memories that make them like that food. Now if I have
to decide for a larger group of people, like Srishti students, to
what kind of food they like, I could consider a suggestion from
my companions. So I think mostly western. But as we had to
decide on traditional food, I believe the dish we choose should
have mostly the same spices used by food venders around our
area where Srishti students usually eat. So whatever we decide
should be traditional, easy to make and ingredients should be
availableinmyreach.ButwhatrawmaterialsamItalkingabout?
Where do these ingredients come from? I got the answers from
the movie about food. The film “Food Inc.”, by Robert Kenner

15
talks about the corporate farming in the U.S. It mentions that
raw material food produced by big companies is unhealthy and
harmful for the animals, plants as well as the workers. More over
it is abusive for both, you and me. Most people don’t have any
idea where there food comes from. They are becoming obese
without even realizing how is this happening. The movie talks
about all these problems and how vegetables, beef, chickens,
pork and hog is so easily available in the supermarkets but is
corrupt and unnatural. Also how the overuse of corn is affecting
everyone. It shows many processing plants that disturb the life
of the employees and degrades the quality of the packaged
food we buy. According to me blaming the government is
not the solution because even the government is dominated
by the industries it is supposed to be regulating. So is it our
responsibility to change these things? Can we even do that? I
don’t know if alone it is possible or not, but together we need
changes at the policy level so carrots are more affordable than
chips. This is possible. For example, the tobacco industry had a
hugecontroloverpublicpolicyanditistheperfectmodelonhow
an industry’s irresponsible behavior was changed. If we observe
properly the food industry will deliver to the marketplace what
the marketplace demands – so if we demand good wholesome
food we will get it. To start with, a very simple thing we could do
is cooking a meal with our family and eating it together because
everyone has a right to healthy food. You can change the world
with every bite. So more than a terrific movie, it’s an important
movie.

First Friday Food Fest
Can food make people happy? Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that
food should make us happy? After all, we eat food to sustain
ourselves. Scientifically, It turns out that some foods are made
of compounds that have been shown to have an effect on our
mood. Which is not bad, but a little peculiar. On 14th march, we
had our first food fest. Moreover, even that day when people ate
our traditional food, I found a kind of happiness on their faces.
There were all traditional dishes. Some were famous and some
were not famous. Being the only person from Rajasthan I joined
the Malayali group and worked on their traditional food. We
made Pazham Pori/banana fritters. It’s a fried traditional Kerela
dish; made with banana, maida, rice flour, sugar and salt. It is
made out of a special variety of plantain called “Nendrapazham”
which is highly nutritious and good source of potassium and

17
vitamin A and C. The day was full of work. We took care of
everything from buying ingredients to getting them to the
college, cooking, decorating, selling, earning and cleaning up
the whole place at the end. It was a good experience and we all
were appreciated for our efforts and food. Not like others who
earnedalot,wefairlymadeaprofitof30%overourexpenditure.
But the decent part was that people enjoyed the whole fest and
we felt like whatever efforts we made were worth formulating.
We faced small problem also while dealing with this situation
like the induction pan didn’t work, or we were out of raw
material at a point of time but we learn from our experiences. So
now we wont make the same mistakes next week. My personal
experience was a bit different. It was a bit difficult for me to
work with people from another state, that is, Kerela. This was
maybe because of the difference in the working process and
their respect towards their state’s food. So I decided to listen to
them and understand their process of working. So I helped my
group with small things like, decorations, washing, providing
themwithstufftheyrequirewhilecookingandhandlingofcash.
Their style of working is not the same as ours but very much
new to me. They used rice flour and bananas, which is very rare
in Rajasthan. The batter was made with certain components I
have never seen being used. I could see how they could make
associations with food and family. All the time while cooking
they talked about how their Amma makes the same thing at
home. This also makes me think how people might like some
kind of food with which they could associate to. This could be
a reason why the famous food item stalls were a success today.
People who came to our stall were mostly those who have never
tasted this dish before or are really fond of this dish. Some of
the people, including me, belonging to various parts of India
did not like the dish as much because it has the traditional

South Indian taste that we are not used to eating. Another
reason why it was not sold at certain times was, while looking
at the ingredients students would see that there is banana in the
dish and did not even consider sampling it. Some came, first ate
and asked if it contains banana. There respond was nice as they
appreciated the recipe, which instead of having banana doesn’t
taste like bananas that they don’t like at all. All over, the respond
was very good and we learned a lot about how to handle a food
stall, plus managing the whole kitchen business. This last thing
is not important, but the best moment that day was when I gave
one plate of Pazham Pori for free to the Anna who handles the
canteen. He just said “thanks”, but the smile on his face was so
big that it made my whole day. I was no more upset about the
failures and I surely felt the joy of giving. Cooking for others
made me really happy today.

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Janapada Loka
A day full of fun and I got to learn about rural folk culture and
traditionsofKarnataka.Ontheday4ofthecoursewewenttothis
place called Janapada Loka meaning “folk world”. It is situated
in Ramanagara district on the Bangalore-Mysore highway. It
also houses a wide array of rural artifacts depicting the essence
of folk literature, music, dance, festivals, sculpture and lifestyle.
But we had to study about things related to food. So we were
roaming around, searching about how food was prepared, their
utensils, and at the end we ate Karnataka traditional food in
their traditional way.

The inside space of the museum was divided in three stages.
And there was a place called Kamat Loka Ruchi canteen to eat
food, beside Janapada Loka. The first stage was where a man
enlightened us about the tribe’s habitat and cooking practices.
Heexplainedthatthetherearetwokothis,onefortherichpeople
and one for the workers. They both have different interiors
but certain peculiar things in them. Like the heat generated
for cooking was also used for boiling water for bath. They had
storage space, small pots that were cemented with mud inside
the walls of the house for grains. A small area at the entrance
of the house was to feed their cattle. Then there was a dinning
room, with sitting space on the floor. And then was the kitchen
with a lot of storage area and a fireplace. They also had pots
that hung from the roof to store butter, which reminded me the
Krishna stories I used to listen to from my grandmother. There
was a really fancy lock on the door and outside was an area for

21
agricultural tools.The second stage was the gallery, which was
organized into four major areas; domestic kitchen and storage,
domestic utilitarian objects, equipment for animal husbandry
and for farming with specific functions and processes. The
kitchen section incorporates items like stoves, cookware, and
tools such as grinders, trays, vessels and containers. They all
had different function and ritual importance. I discovered the
rain cover to be the most interesting tool in that gallery. It is a
big hat like agricultural tool made out of bamboo. As rice in a
grain that has to be tended in heavy rains, since transplanting,
fertilizing and weeding of rice is done in monsoon, these covers
are used to protect ourselves from getting wet. Also the butter
balance was something I saw for the first time. The vendors used
to collect butter from households and sold it in weekly market.
It was balanced on the thick wooden handle. The last stage was
a museum where mostly cultural art and crafts were displayed.

Although some interesting tools were a candleholder, metal
water contains etc. Lastly we ate South Indian food in their
traditional way. On banana leaf that we washed ourselves, they
served us curd, buttermilk, jeera papad, salad pazham, rice,
ghee, sambhar, roti, brinjal, 4 types of side dishes and something
that looked like dhokla. People around me taught me how to eat
the drumstick that was there in the sambhar. I didn’t know how
we eat that. In all, the trip was a wonderful experience. We had
fun in the bus and there was a sprinkler in the garden, where
we got wet because it was a hot sunny day. And what I learned
was enlightening and I would surely like to research more on
Karnataka’s culture. The one problem I initially faced was in
understanding what the guide was trying to tell us because
I don’t understand Kannada. But then I took my friend who
knows Kannada with me to translate certain things. I guess this
was also a part of learning; how to deal with people around you!

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Conclusion
In the duration of the entire week I had a strong urge to eat more
and more food. We chattered and talked about food all the time.
How food was prepared, raw materials used and traditional and
famous food that we get in our vicinity were some of our basic
discussions. I started looking at every kitchen with a different
view, while talking to my parents all I talked about was food and
recipes all the time. I love food and the course is letting me feel
happy at all points of time. Food is the driving force of all life
form and for me it is all I was thinking about since four days. At
home also, Shruti Anand is one food lover I spoke to a lot. The
exotic photos of the variety of mouth-watering delicacies filled
my nose with its virtual aroma and its scrumptious taste. The
movies that we saw were informative as well as inspirational. I
found them to be very meek but the essence of the movies and
the message they were trying to give was very much to the point.
I learned about other traditional food and working with Kerela
people was a delighting experience. I can now understand that
we stared off with very simple talking and exercises, which is
now becoming an understanding to which I can relate to my
knowledge towards food and various cultures. In the beginning
of the course I was not sure to what the course was about but
now I am looking at food in a different way in aspects of a
material for thought. There are so many stereotypes that we
ignore but these are the myths that describe our identity. I also
liked how I was very easily making associations with food, the
consideration about food was so much that all the thoughts
branched out in so many different directions but were never
ending. I find a transformation in the way of looking at food.
Earlier I used to look at food according to its taste and smell

but now after talking so much about the culture and traditions
regarding the delicacies and food that we nourish I think of
which nation or culture it belongs to or how it is prepared or
even the ingredients. This transformation is very prominent, as
today while consuming the dosa I was standing in front of the
dosa stall and observing how he makes the dosa. Also when
yesterday I bought the biscuits, I was looking for what is it made
of and how much calorie it contains. The movie about packaging
was horrifying and being a little judgmental it is necessary for
all of us not to consume packaged food and make changes in
our society. Because its not too late, we should acquire from
the mistakes made by Americans who are now suffering from
the major problems like obesity, food poisoning and deaths
due to packaged food specially the meat that we consume. It’s
our responsibility now and actions should be taken as soon as
possible. By the end of the course I was very well aware of these
practicesandwouldwanttoresearchmoreonthis.Thesequence
in which we are indulging in the things about food is letting me
ponder upon things I never used to think about. And giving me
a broader view of the food we consume. I find this is compulsory
for each and every one of us to understand the importance of
what we eat. Also we should consider the food practices and try
as many meals of as many places as possible. Because I think
its not the same everywhere and life is too short to taste all the
global and regional cuisines. The spices and ingredients that
combine together to make a fusion of nutrition, which we taste
and scent becomes a different experience for us to cherish and
remember. We don’t eat food from our hands; we apprize food
with our mind, heart and stomach.

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Chapter 2
Food as Relegion
and Tradition
It’s been experiential to slowly learn to manage things in account
with the restrictions we have to face. There are a lot of limitations
that we have to consider at every point of time and make sure
things go smoothly. In the beginning of the day we discussed
what we did the last week and analyzed our learning. The most
interesting thing that I enjoyed talking about was the good
quality/quantity of vegetables or meat we get in the market. Is
it nutritious or the quality is manipulated? According to me,
the genetically modified food is the same as the organic food
we consume with some positive changes like increase in size/
shape or taste, without affecting the nutrition value. Main cause
of distorted food we get is only because of overuse of chemicals
like pesticides and fertilizers or unhygienic conditions the crop
is grown in. So I think the genetically engineered food is good
for the consumers as well as the businessman. The rest of the day,
we discussed about, what we have to do for the Friday food fest.
Being in the Rajasthani group I planed to make the whole meal
that is usually served to us in a famous traditional Rajasthan
resort, Choki dhani. But realizing that the whole class is making

one platter all together with different food from all traditions I
was satisfied and suggested simple delicacies of Rajasthan. But
because I wanted to learn and experience a way, in which, I could
coordinate and manage a large number of people, I decided to
join the organizing team. Cooking is not a problem with me
and at home I help my mother, so I preferred to learn about
something different. And now I have to think about everything
very precisely from the space to the costing and ingredients
every group will be using. I’ll have to arrange for utensils and
objects for organizing the whole space. I think it is not a tuff
job but I’ll have to keep my calm and work in a consolidating
way considering all the factors and including all the limitations.
One very important thing went wrong that day. We planned
on putting up posters and make coupons for the college to
inform them and collect money from them. We should have
finished with the posters and coupons by the afternoon so as
to interact with our consumers. But they were finalized after
lunch, so now we will have to be there in the college tomorrow
morning to sell the coupons. Another small problem that we
faced and had a huge discussion on was what if the coupons got
copied or transferred to someone else without us letting know
of it. An ideal solution is still doubtful, but we made an effort
to overcome this problem and give it a shot. If not successful,
we’ll talk about it and it will become learning for us. As we learn
from our mistakes and experience only. Other small thing to
create a food fest type atmosphere, we planned to add costumes
or elements of their costumes from each tradition to make it
look more trendy. Also we could add a small dance performance
for the audience to in the starting of their meal so to create a
enjoyable environment. There could be ongoing music to make
the costumers feel pleasant throughout. The whole course is a
very different from all the courses as one thing very important I

27
am learning is how to work in such a big group of 37 people.
Things I never considered were important like the price of the
tomatoes in the market or how the ingredients my mother uses
for making an apparently simple dish like pav bhaji or pasta are
so costly, are now becoming a very essential part of my life. I
expect a lot to learn from this course and I am working with all
the efforts I could put in.

The preparation for the food fest was pretty interesting and a
lot more interactive. We initially failed to sell our tickets. We
went to many students and facilitators in the morning, but they
refused to buy coupons from us. They told they were not sure if
they would come or they did not want to spend so much money
on the unknown meal we were randomly talking about. The
simple reason why they were not buying our tickets was that
we did not have a planned strategy. We thought we are not able
to sell because there is a problem with the menu or no proper
advertisement was done or the food was not exotic to attract
people or the price was too high for students to buy or. So we
had to answer the question; why would people buy our food?
We were short of time. So we planned not to change the menu
or the price because this was something that we all decided a
day before with all our opinions and discussions. Now what was
wrong was the selling strategy. So, then together the whole class
settled down for only 15 minutes and talked about the strategy
to attract people. 4 simple things we decided to talk about to
our costumers was; the Indian traditional platter consists
of food from different regions of India, its nutritive value,
environment that we are creating tomorrow and the serving
of the platter and finally decided to change the names of some
of our dishes to attract people and somewhat hide the not-so-
interesting ingredients like pea and methi from our menu. But
of all, the most important thing was that the whole class was
finally working together and went outside selling tickets in all
the campuses. It went really well. People were actually buying
the tickets and trusting us for good food. I find it very rare
when everyone works together in the group. Although we are
divided in different regional groups, all of us were working
together, helping each other, supporting each other’s opinions
and coordinating properly. This might help us gain profit and

29
moreover unity. After the whole experience of working with
this strategy and gaining all the money, now was to the time to
allot work to everyone. There are different tasks like serving the
food, cooking, cleaning, arranging the basement area, keeping
an eye on what is going on and getting the utensils was given
to each one of us. Everyone willingly volunteered for the tasks
they preferred to do. Next was to get all the ingredients at a
cheaperprice.Thatwaspossibleonlyifwebuyalltheingredients
together. So we sat down and discussed all the ingredients
each group wants and got every ingredient in bulk, as much
needed. We got it for a very less price, which was cheap enough.
One person from each group went to buy the ingredients and
plus some more manpower. Again we were working together
and helping each other. We were having a lot of fun and in
addition to that we were learning many things. Basically, we
practiced to bargain. We again divided work and coordinated
well. Organizing and making sure of all that was happening
was one my concerns. Everyone was supporting me and telling
their problems so I could ask them to do what was valid and an
easy way out. My second concern was handling the whole lot of
money. I am still not able to figure out how I have extra money
that what I calculated. But I might figure that out tomorrow. We
have already started making profit and all together are earning
more that what we spent. That is something; everyone is happy
and proud about. Tomorrow I think we are going to face more
challenges and we have to learn more from those mistakes so as
to take it forward in our life.

Delicious Indian freshly cooked full nutritive meal from all parts
of the country was served on a banana leaf in a traditional style
that day. The food fest was a great success. And everyone enjoyed
and learned as much possible. The whole class was united and
was coordinating very well. They all new their duties and were
working hard at each step. We made a huge profit and we were
proud of ourselves. The day started off with everyone preparing
food, some students in college and some at home. They all faced
minor problems but with the help of our facilitators and other
classmates those problems were easily sorted out. My job was
to make sure everything was going fine or not. It was smooth. I
Second Friday Food

31
helped in arranging the whole area where people were supposed
to sit. The proper settings complimenting with the open kitchen
and sitting arrangements was attracting everyone. People were
buying tickets when they saw the environment and the way we
were working. It was pretty interesting to see how everyone
on the basement got so involved in the process and took their
responsibilitiesseriously.Mynextjobwastositandkeeptrackof
people entering and leaving and who have paid and who didn’t. I
was working basically as an accountant with Mishaal Shetty who
was doing his part perfectly fine. He was collecting the tickets
and made sure no extra people sneak in. It become hectic at
some points of time but it was a pleasure to see so many people
willingly wanting to eat the food we made. The feedback was
really well. Mostly all facilitators and students wrote a positive
feedback but also mentioned about the small mistake, which
will become an education for us and we will take care of those
small things for the next time. It was breathtaking when you
hear people say that they want to eat next week also or they want
to bring their friends also or the quantity was filling or the food
was amazingly great or they don’t wish to suggest what to eat
next week, but seek to get a surprise. They were happy, so were
we. I felt like the ambience created could be more interesting to
attract more people. But after this response I think people will
come because we have earned a popular name of “Mistresses of
Spices & Masters of Kitchens – Friday Food Fest”. So now they
trust us and would want to eat with us. The food was very tasty,
the serving was taken care of in a proper manner and because
of the open kitchen you could smell all the Indian spices. You
could feel the love and hard work students put in it. Not only
the meal, but also, people appreciated the coupons design and
posters that were put up. Talking about the calculations, it was a
tough job and I had to render some of the numbers but the

33
estimates were surely taken care of at each time, exchange of
money took place and no doubt the profit was way beyond our
expectation. This experience was something we will remember
for the rest of our lives. We somewhat also learning marketing
strategy that day in addition to the basics of serving and the way
we treat our costumers. One more important thing I learned was
that planning and practically applying this plan are two things
that are far away from each other. What we think and what
happens is sometimes very much opposite. Although that day
the process was planned and everything was according to it, but
if a consider the minor confronts like getting extra ingredients
or utensils theses were some drawbacks that we don’t actually
consider while planning the meal. This has to be corrected the
next week when we serve soups, salads or deserts.

35

LANGAR

1. Religiously
motivated
people

working
together.

2. The
food
was
unlimited.

3. Sequential
preparation
of
food.

4. There
was
no
level
of
competition.

5. Too
many
people
working.

6. Properly
organized.

7. Mental
peace.

8. Work
was
coordinated.

9. Assured
with
faith.

10.
There
were
no
expectations.

11. No
one
forced
to
do
any
task.

Everyone
was
doing
what
he
or
she

wanted
to.

12. The
process
was
smooth.

13. Satisfactory
feelings
in
simply

watching
people
eat
food
we

prepared.

14. Calm
atmosphere.

15. No
greed
for
money.

16. A
rule
to
wait
for
everyone
before

we
start
to
eat.

17. Although,
no
one
ordering
anyone,
it

was
smooth
and
everyone
knew

what
they
had
to
do.

18. No
one
was
judging.

19. Food
was
not
good
looking.

20. The
served
food
was
not
hot.

21. The
food
was
served
fast.

22. There
was
a
sense
of
religious

belongingness.

23. Management
was
proper.

24. Its
been
happening
since
a
long
time

now.

25. Respect
for
food.
No
one
wasted
any

food.

26. There
was
age
difference
in
people

who
are
working.

27. 13
dishes
were
served.

FRIDAY
FOOD
FEST

1. Assignment
oriented
students

working
individually
in
a
team.

2. The
food
was
limited.

3. Groups
preparing
different

dishes.

4. There
was
competition
among

the
different
groups.

5. 37
students+2
facilitators

working.

6. Some
tasks
were
not
planned.

7. We
were
in
strain.

8. Uncertain
coordination.

9. No
faith.

10. Expected
a
lot.

11. Various
jobs
given
to
everyone.

12. The
process
was
new
experience.

13. Satisfactory
in
terms
of

appreciation
and
money.

14. Tensed
environment.

15. Faced
unconscious
greed.

16. No
one
waited
for
anyone.

17. People
ordering,
there
was
some

kind
of
fuss.

18. Audience
and
we
judged
all
our

movements.

19.
Food
was
good
looking.

20. Food
served
was
hot.

21. Service
was
a
bit
slow.

22. People
were
associating
with

food
and
not
each
other.

23. Management
was
not
so
proper.

24. It
was
our
first
experience.

25. No
respect
for
food.
People

wasted
a
lot
of
food.

26. Same
age
group
working

together.
Ego
problems.

27. 6
dishes
were
served.

CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
(LANGAR
AND
FRIDAY
FOOD
FEST)

Critical Analysis of Langar and Friday
Food Fest

Conclusion
This week was full of fun and enjoyment. I was able to
simultaneously learn a lot. I was very excited from the beginning
of the week itself. To start with I learned that whatever decision
we make, we should believe in it and trust ourselves. Like we
all were frustrated because we were not able to sell the tickets,
so we planned to change the menu or the price, which was
disrespecting our own selves. However, soon we realized certain
things and came up with the idea of following a strategy and sell
the tickets. I also learned that there are many restrictions that
one has to consider while making food for a large number of
people. There is a lot of work involving limitations that we have
to plan before the final execution of the food fest. Moreover, we
have to think about, things as small as the spoons for serving
to people as fussy as old men. One more very important thing
while working on any project is to have a backup, an option to
execute if somehow the plan fails. Personally, the most basic
thing I experienced was, accounting all the money exchange. I
faced problems when some money was extra or some was gone,
and figuring that out took a lot of time. This was the first time
I managed so many calculations, and I think this involvement
was important for me to experience the challenges as to take it
forward in life. Also the work of allotting tasks to students of my
age and class was another aspect where I was involved. There
are many different perspectives, opinions, cultural differences
and ego that easily clash and handling that individuality was an
additional task managed by the whole class appropriately. It was
interesting to observe how people work and get stubborn so
easily if things are don’t drive in a proper way and some people
don’t care about whatever is happening. However, there was a

39
pronounced teamwork where everyone respected what the
other person was doing. I really appreciate that we got all the
ingredients together and coordinated very well at each step
while working. The whole week we focused on the Friday food
fest and I think that is one of the reason it was a success. The
most incredible period of this week was Sunday. We went to
a lungur in a Gurudwara at M.G. road. It was tiring and we
worked hard, but working with faith where you know others
do not judge you for your work was relaxing and made me feel
really happy. Making food for more than 3000 people eating
unlimited food for free was a gigantic responsibility. But there it
looked so simple. People, who wanted to make chappatis, made
chappatis. People, who wanted to clean the floor or utensils,
cleaned floor or utensils respectively. People, who wanted to
serve, served. People, who wanted to eat, ate. It was very smooth
and an ongoing process. There was no one to boss around and
no one to judge your work. Also, people of all ages were working
together, helping each other, and with no one telling them what
they had to do. Although I have been to a Gurudwara before,
but working like this and then eating the food I made on such a
large scale was a new experience and a lot of fun. Nonetheless,
there were so many people working there, the environment was
extremely peaceful and calm. And one thing I could relate to in
the Gurudwara was to wait for everyone before we start eating,
because at my house, we have this rule where everyone starts
eating together. But I think the most significant difference in
the meals in college and in Gurudwara was not being religious
and being religious because faith plays an important role in
everyone’s life.

41
Chapter 3
Negotiations in food

My brain got filled with a lot of knowledge mainly about healthy
food. This so started with a small discussion about the third
Friday food fest. Initially we decided to make a dessert with
oreo biscuits and chocolate dip but some other group was doing
the same, so we finalized soup. Moreover, very less people were
making the soup. Firstly, we tried to make the soup at home. It
did not taste good but we wanted to give it a shot to experience
the results. We finalized chilled watermelon soup with chilly
and lime. Secondly, the recipe was given on the Internet and
the ingredients were easily available. Also we chose cold soup
because of the weather. It was something unique and we wanted
to explore how people react to that. The second half of the
discussion was pretty interesting. We had a talk about health
food. Health food meant different things for different people.
To me health food is any kind of food that is non-processed and
is consumed exclusively (without addition of any ingredients,
solely one single ingredient). My research says as soon as we
add second ingredient to any single ingredient, they react and
the final product is difficult for our body to digest. It becomes
harmful for us instead of getting absorbed; it gets deposited in
the body. But then comes the concept of taste and it becomes
importantforustoaddingredientstogetherandmakesomething
delicious. So, it is necessary to add ingredients to make a dish
taste good. Then how can we make it healthy as well as tasty at
the same time? Basically, healthy food essentially has to involve
study about vitamins and minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and
fats in any food that we consume. Considering the presence
of these elements in a diet can make food that is healthy and
tasty. Healthy food has a different impact on every person in the
world. It also depends on the metabolism of ones system. Food
provides nutrition whose quantity and nutrient differs for each
organism living on this planet. We consider fats to be harmful,

43
but if you consider people suffering from anorexia (95% of
American teenage girls suffer from this eating disorder), fats
become the most important thing for them to live. Therefore,
each body requires a certain amount of each type of nutrient
everyday for energy and immunity. Some nutrients are essential
for us to consume everyday because our body easily secretes
them, some nutrients are non-essential that are already present
in our body. But if essential nutrients are consumed heavily it
might cause severe problems. Excess of anything is harmful.
And in case of consuming food, it should always be the right
amount that we intake everyday. If less, it can cause nutrient
deficiency diseases and if overdosed, it can cause problems like
obesity because the extra amount settles down in the body,
which is harmful. Thus, simple ways to do that is to make sure
that you have 800-1000 calories per day. Not more, nor less.
Have a staple diet, but take 2 hours gap between each meal
you consume. Limit the amount of junk and packaged food
from your meal. Go to bed at a reasonable hour. This is very
important as the food you eat affects your heath according to
when you sleep or for how long you sleep. Have a lot of water
and avoid it when you are eating. Start your day with a lot of
food and decrease the amount by night. This is because when
we eat in the morning, we tend to workout the whole day using
the energy gained from the food. But at night the food stays in
the body and affects the system. It is a sensitive issue and should
be taken care of properly.

45
We went to Iskcon temple for this course, which is situated in
Bangalore itself. It is a religious place, which has deities of Lord
Krishna and Radha. People go there with full faith and devotion.
Behind that is separate legal entity allotted to Akshaya Patra
Foundation, an NGO providing food (mid day meal) for 1.3
million school children across 9 States and 20 locations in India.
We visited the whole outlet and experienced how the food was
prepared and other aspects related to that. The “Satvik” food
is freashly cooked with woman workers cutting vegetables in
the morning and men workers working in night. The vegetables
are washed properly and the food is successfully transported to
their respective schools. These workers are trained throughout
the year. Also, they are given opportunities to play, draw and
much more that keeps then interested in the organization
and helps them build a better living. There are man-operated
machines that keeps on modifying as per the need. That’s why
there is a lot of manual labor. The 13 years of experience includes
trial and error methods to improve technology as the food is
produced on such a large scale. There are mechanisms used like
the gravity flow machine and roti-making machine that can
produce 60,000 rotis per hour. The containers are huge and one
container can serve 1000 children at a time. A routine is set
and all the tasks are properly distributed among the workers.
In south, mostly sambhar, rice and curd are given as lunch.
They also have varieties like curd, sweets, milk, sabji but with
certain alimentary limitations. Like the taste of the food should
be according to the taste the region they belong to. The meal
is modified as to follow t he nutritional value provided by the
government. The basic aim of this foundation is to fulfill the
hungriness of poor children by providing unlimited food for
education and maintaining the quality and hygiene. This also
forces small children to study. The food served is edible although

47
monotonous. The vegetables used are from the local pallet. They
are seasonal, accessible, locally grown and sometimes organic.
Health issues and environmental issues are very much a part
of this organization. They are trying to go green in a few more
years. They conduct quality checks, occupational health check
and inspections. There is sewage treatment plant, as 1.5 lakh L
water is used everyday, which is reused. There is 500 kg of waste
produced everyday, which is managed in biogas plants. They
are also focusing on solar energy and use of bio fertilizers. The
food-produced everyday is on a very large scale and per person
it costs around seven rupees and fifty-paisa. 60% of the money
comes from the government including the rice, machinery
and other stuff, and other trusts, NGOs and individuals who
are interested donate the rest of the 40%. One major complain
that Akshay Patra receives very often is about the consistency
in the quality of rice which is provided by the government.
However,onemajorinitiativebythefoundationthatIpersonally
appreciate is that they also work in a decentralized way, which
allows housewives to prepare food for their children in small
regions. In addition to this, the centralized mid day meal has
been a great success. It has achieved many awards and provides
a great deal for children who are deficit of food. It stared in the
year 2000. That time it included only 500-1000 students. And
within one year they stared serving 30,000 students. It was a
marvelous initiative, because of which no child goes hungry in
the country. It is a collective responsibility of the community to
serve hunger and share ideas.

49
Third Friday Food Fest
This was a difficult fest. People didn’t like our food, nor did we
make a profit. Moreover we were certainly not coordinating as
a whole class. But I think failure is something that I like to face.
And being on the positive side of the scenario, the experience
of not selling your food but keeping a smile on your face was
wonderful. Latter half of the food fest I was not sad, I was happy
because I had fun while making the soup. We initially decided
to make oreo dipped in chocolate dessert, but because no other
group was willing to make soup, we hopped over to soups. And
theworstwaswetriedtomakecoldsoup.Thenwedecidedtoadd
fruit to that soup. And because watermelon is cheap and easily
available in the locality we finally made “chilled watermelon
soup with chilly and lime”. We started with a sample, which
tasted fine but not satisfactory. But then some other people
tasted it, and said it has a different taste. Therefore, we took our
chances and decided the make the same. It was a 50-50-chance
trial because no one has ever tasted it and we didn’t know if his
or her taste buds would match ours. Secondly, to get ingredients
and to serve 50 people, we to the market with limited planning
and got 28 kg of watermelon, chilly, green onion, lemons, apple,
pomegranate and vinegar. I eat watermelon on a daily basis and
the last watermelon I ate got frozen, which tasted really nice.
Additionally, it’s hot outside and soup is stereotypically a hot
beverage, therefore people would prefer chilled fruits. Thus, we
planed to put frozen fruits in our soup as garnishing. We then
took out the watermelon juice and kept the whole thing in the
refrigerator for one night. Then chopped fruits and vegetables
were also kept in the freezer. Next morning we took them out,
mixed everything expect for the garnish. Then kept the soup

again in the fridge. We waited for 2-3 hours; meanwhile we
did the decoration for a good presentation. We used apples,
chilies, waste from lemons and pomegranate for this purpose.
People appreciated that, but not the soup. They didn’t like the
soup at all. Although one person liked it so much that she took
four cups of soup from us. We knew it was not that good, and
after discussing for a while we observed that the combination
of watermelon with green onion didn’t go well. But it was
worth trying. The class was divided into groups, which was
not coordinated properly. But individually our group was very
much coordinated and synchronized. We did all the tasks in
an organized manner and we could easily dependent on each
other. I value our teamwork more than any other aspect for
this time’s Friday food fest. We faced a failure but were not sad
about it because whatever it was, it was because of our hard

51
work and coordination. Towards the end of the fest, we were just
selling the frozen fruits, and not the soup. This was one strategy
that we needed to adopt so as to compensate our expenditure.
Peopleboughtfrozenfruitsmainlybecauseitwashotoutsideand
they were getting a comparatively chilled food to eat. Otherwise,
this week’s Friday food fest was a flop show. Our drawback was
that we didn’t consider who our target audience was. Maybe no
one among us understood the real meaning of what is healthy
food is or how we can make people eat healthy food. It is also
because after making so much profit the last week, we have lost
track or we didn’t make proper efforts to manage everything
properly. We were more into the collecting money aspect of
the event. Moreover, we did not manage to accommodate our
previous learning into this time’s fest.

Conclusion
“People who love to eat are always the best people”. But during
the course I realized that people and food have numerous
connections. To know the community, we need to understand
food. Likewise, to understand the food we need to understand
the larger audience. We need to learn their practices, interact
with them and understand the society to design according to
their satisfactory needs. Moreover in this course, we interact
with food and use food as the medium to interact with the
people. Till now we have dealt with four communities, one
ancient Karnataka practice, langar at the Gurudwara, mid day
meal at Akshaya Patra foundation and the Srishti community.
Understanding these communities and observing their agenda
to cater a larger audience gave a basic sense of organizing
relationships and a business aspect of event management. After
a lot of critical analysis this week, I am very much satisfied
with the course. Important things that we unknowingly
learned were; food preparation, servings, advertisement, group
work and dynamics, identities regarding family, cultural and
region, time management, hygiene, awareness, promotion and
marketing, presentation, conceptualization, quality of food,
nutrition, estimation, quantity, cost, taste, atmosphere and
aesthetics is an event to set the mood, anticipating everything
fromgarbagetohowmanypeoplecoming,implementationand
design of the event to its key detail and communicating with
the customers. I am building stronger connections with food
and the community. To me food was a basic need and a zip lock
bag full of happiness. But now it is a larger learning that unites
people around me. Food influence people to become one and
builds a systematic process. And cooking on the other hand, is

53
tiring, which now makes me respect what my mother cooks for
me. I have realized I can’t take things for granted. We need to
make some negotiations but it’s only ones target audience that we
must consider. It is the customer’s happiness and target market
that allows no process but a hearty initiative. The whole course
is about experiential learning where there must be no blame
game, no faultfinding, no bothering anyone but direct learning
that should be taken forward in life. Things got unrecognized at
some times but it’s our responsibility to consider all the aspects
and take care of each and every element attached to food. Like
while buying the ingredients we become the customers but while
serving food we become vendors. Thus, there is a supply change.
Moreover, the health factor was a big issue this week. It gave a
basic sense to how we as designers can convince our clients to
buy what we want them to buy. We need to know our market
and understand our client in a group as well as individuals. I
think what’s missing on my part is doing more of research
and documentation. I need to gain knowledge along with the
experience I am getting through this course. Many activities that
we are doing are things that we usually think about but never take
initiatives to do them ourselves. So I think this course is giving
us a great opportunity to do what we wouldn’t do ourselves. One
more very important aspect that we are getting to learn in the
course is negotiating, it’s not a task but a skill that as designers
we need to acquire. It should not involve fighting or arguments,
but proper conversations and conclusions that all of us should
agree. In all, the course suggests a good opportunity to involve
in various activities that allows us to understand food and
community as a whole.

Billon of years ago, the world was one piece of land. Over the
years it drifted apart. Today it is driven back together by a
global phenomenon that is making connection. That is called
globalization. Food becomes a major cultural aspect that helps
in globalization. Why has fast food become so successful? The
simple reason is convenience. It is easy to find and easy to
purchase. This is something happening globally. Let’s take an
example of McDolnalds, it’s affecting our health and making
people obese. There are advertisements, tempting photographs
of the food that makes us eat more food. Masquerading of
food is increasing on a large scale. But another major issue is
transportationoffood.Theearthcanfeedonlytwomillionpeople
at a time. But at present it is feeding 7 million people, which will
increase to a 10 million by 2030. And because of globalization
there is a lot of food that is wasted during transportation. If not
wasted it becomes unhealthy because of the preservatives that
we use. On a larger scale if we wish to consume healthy food
we should only eat locally grown vegetables. At least, then we
have no one to blame for our bad health. Food is a basic need,
but overusing it for our benefits is becoming a big issue. I also
think alcohol plays an important part in the social and cultural
life of any society. We use it to make food. It is funny to look
at the fact that beer was originated from Germany but today
it is available rom all four corners of the world. The outcome
of this whole conversation was that people are becoming lazier
as saving time on food is convenient for everybody. Moreover,
it is human nature to explore food. They might like it or not,
but they always want to try something new, globalization allows
that. Because of globalization we tend to eat food from the other
parts of the world. It is mostly modified and tastes according to
what our taste buds cherish. So, we see it has both positive and
negativeoutcomes to it. Although, considering nature’s ease,

57
globalization is more towards a bad option. We blame others
for the unhealthy food that we get or even regarding the harm
that we are causing to the earth. But we never understand our
responsibilitytowardsit.Ifweuniteandprotestagainstthis,then
only we can reduce globalization or adapt better options that are
beneficial for everyone. But we think it’s not our responsibility
but people like environmentalists or the government and also
many of us don’t believe in a sustainable future, being selfish.
The major cause according to me is over population and mental
psychologyofpeoplethatislettingallthishappen.Masquerading
is not bad, but could be used in a positive way to manipulate
people to think big and eat healthy. If we control population
and operate a system where we change man’s thought process
according to what the earth needs, it will help control a lot many
problem. But if we go deep into the studies, most of the foods
that we commonly eat today are the product of globalization.
And often a globalization that began centuries before the term
came into use. So it’s like, all this started on a proper optimistic
note but due to marketing and developments it is leading to
something dystopian, which is still ignored by many of us.
Moreover, the taste of the fast food is a part of us. We at least
consume it on a weekly basis and unconsciously it resides there
within us. It’s a difficult job to get rid of the fast food we have
involved into because of globalization. It is a part of our life, but
it is also our responsibility to make sure we eat what is healthy
and what is not harming the environment. After reading about
the philosophy of food, there are many things that now make
sense and many mistakes that could be taken care of for the next
time. The most important task while talking about food is its
production and consumption. We usually relate with food only
as woman’s work at house or our senses and activities. Other
than that food is eschewed for all the citizens. But the course is

allowingustogofardeepintothethingthatwecherisheveryday.
The full traditional meal “Friday food fest” was a success, but at
the same time was a long lasting experience. Although, when
I read the philosophy of food I realized many aspects related
to food that were missing and some that could be corrected.
The first was the metaphysics related to the management and
knowing what exactly is to be done with all the information
about nutrition, nature, culture, social good, desideratum, diet
etc. in hand. This is the first principal and for the next time
becomes a very important aspect to be taken care of the next
time, so as to tell people what we know and how we stared. The
second is the epistemology, which is the scope of knowledge
we can gain before starting working of the food. It includes
risks, regulations, trust and practical reasons to what we are
doing. Basic reasons should be there that answer the questions
about processing, packaging, cooking, accessibility of food and
disposing of waste. Certain actions, good or bad are sometimes
involuntary and unconscious. Like in the platter the serving was
done both by girls and boys, a positive aspect that was added
to our arrangements that was spontaneous and unconscious.
Further, the aesthetics that was involved in the process and
the final display was certainly diligent and taste was very
much considered at all times. Cultural, historical, ceremonial
function, customary consumptions were some more things that
were mentioned in the book and unknowingly we were able to
incorporate them as an intuitive effort. These are things that we
often don’t ponder upon but plays a very important part while
we contemplate a larger audience. Here, we talk about a food
event, so taste becomes the most important of all. However the
philosophy related to it says taste is universal and subjective
at the same time. It becomes least reliable as soon as we start
judging it on the basis of others taste because taste is a sense, a

59
feeling that might be different for everyone on earth. Another
aspect related to aesthetics of food is how it looks. Food and
art don’t go along very well. But visually tempting food is
essential for the consumer to buy it. This philosophy is used to
manipulate the mind of the customers for the seller’s own profit.
Lastly, technological and political aspects helps in building up
the way an even is organized. On one hand, technology make
things simple while on the other hand, politics brings conflicts.
In the food event we organized, it was a traditional fest and
thus technology didn’t play a big role. Also, initially politics
was not a big issue, but after some time when people talk about
other people it became a part of our food fest. Certain issues
were not our concern because we do get some luxuries from
college like the furniture, electricity etc. The other things that
we discussed were hygiene, which includes cleaning, cooking,
chilling and cross contamination and the functional properties
of carbohydrate, protein and fats in food. Food poisoning was
another important part that was added to our learning. It was
knowledgeable and I could take my analysis forward.

Understanding local vendors
On one of the Saturdays we went for an experience that was
an important task that helped us to understand how vendors
work and compare the same with how we managed our fest.
We chose a vender that everyone loves to go to. He sold gol
gappas, which are puris served with aloo, channa, pyas, hara
dhaniya, masalas and chutneys with jaljeera or shakkar water.
The masalas include; red chili powder, green chili powder, black
salt, salt and coriander powder. It was the same as every gol
gappa stall but observing the whole situation of him working
and earning was new. After talking to him for a while we got to
know a lot of things about him and our favorite food. Placed in
Yelahanka new town, it was fascinating to see him work.

He said, everyday he used to wake up at six to start preparing
for the day. By eight ‘o’clock he starts the preparation. The two
main ingredients to make the puri were sooji and maida, which
has to be mixed with water and is made into a dough. After that
pieces of it are fried. After twelve o’clock he cut vegetables, boil
potatoes, prepare the chutney and packs the spices. Therefore,
for his stall, which opens at 4pm he has to start working at eight
in the morning. His stall is on till ten in the night. He serves 5
pieces in Rs.10. The presentation of the stall was amusing. He
had so many utensils on one small shack. Everything was well
organized and it seemed like he was working for a long time
now. Moreover, he was in a one-man business. He told us, at
home he had his wife who helped him, but otherwise, he was
doing all the work alone. Still he earned like Rs. 5000 per day,
from which he is making a descent profit. The ingredients he
used were mostly locally grown; otherwise he buys them from
a wholesale market. The customers had 3 ways to go to. First,
take the bowl and eat. Second, throw the leftover water in a
bucket. And lastly, dump the bowl in the dustbin. Some of the
customers even went to drink water that was there, near the
shack. If I compare my gol gappa experience with what we did
while making the soup I realize I still have a lot to learn. The
experiences, the mistakes and the achievements were all that
was important for me to understand.

63
Conclusion
Information is not knowledge. But understanding information
is gaining knowledge. This week we read and analyzed different
articles related to food. All the manuscripts we read and the
discussions we had, provided a very deep understanding to
what our experience was from the beginning of the course. It
was very interesting to know what exactly we were learning
without even making any efforts of learning the same. The
course made us learn almost everything related to food, from
marketing strategies to hygienic aspects regarding food. We
researched and documented all our understandings and
processed them according to our capabilities. We even analyzed
and communicated with people, trying to know their different
perspectivesonsocio-culturalandeconomicinformation.Thus,
participation becomes essential for a successful community
intervention. To design for a community of a large number of
people,itisveryimportanttounderstandthemandportraytheir
stories through a single or multiple images. Not one person, but
cumulative study of the whole community. The course provided
visualizing, representing and expressing our own thoughts and
improvising on them through food. I believe food was one term
that was used to make us understand how communities work
and coincide with their everyday meal. Thomas Keller once
said, “A recipe has no soul. You as a cook must bring soul to
the recipe”. Therefore, it’s basically our input and participation
that is indispensable to know a particular subject, in this case a
community with respect to food.

65
A
Akshaya Patra Foundation 44
C
Chapter 1
FOOD - MIND, HEART AND STOMATCH 11
Chapter 2
Food as Relegion and Tradition 25
Chapter 3
Negotiations in food 41
Chapter 4
Food for thought 55
Conclusion week 1 23
Critical Analysis of Langar and Friday Food Fest 35
E
Experience at the Langar 36
F
Final Costing Report 34
First Friday Food Fest 16
I
Introduction 7
J
Janapada Loka 19
O
Objectives 9
S
Second Friday Food 30
T
Third Friday Food Fest 49
U
Understanding local vendors 60
Photography by Manpreet SIngh
Aayush Amit Bhingare
Akash Pradeep
Monica Narang
Nidhi Kulkarni
Sudhanshu Dabral
Bibliography

Food manuscript

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