Getting Cultural Appropriation in Food right, and how to learn instead of steal from traditional cooking methods with Mallika Basu
30th Sep 2024
Mallika Basu is one of my absolute favourite people in food.
Not only is she hilarious, she’s a writer, commentator and board adviser in food, drink and hospitality with two published cookbooks (Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking for Busy Living and Masala: Indian Cooking for Modern Living). She writes a fantastic newsletter “More than Curry” covering the link between food, people and planet, as well as recipes with spice and flavour and stories on food and culture in other publications.
During the pandemic, Mallika developed proprietary thinking on food, culture and diversity covering cultural appropriation, language and labels and representation which she has delivered to almost 900 individuals at organisations including Penguin Random House, Jamie Oliver Group, Tesco and Waitrose.
Today we chat about
- Going from Indian cooking to commenting on culture and diversity, getting the facts right on cultural appropriation
- Why the planet piece matters for food and drink lovers
- The everyday challenges of feeding a family. I have two teens and am a single parent with a solo household half the week.
- How she diverts them away from UPFs
Episode guests
Mallika is a writer, commentator and board adviser in food, drink and hospitality. with two published cookbooks (Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking for Busy Living and Masala: Indian Cooking for Modern Living). Mallika writes an award-nominated newsletter More than Curry covering the link between food, people and planet, as well as recipes with spice and flavour and stories on food and culture in other publications. She is a podcast host for (BBC) Good Food.
During the pandemic, Mallika developed proprietary thinking on food, culture and diversity covering cultural appropriation, language and labels and representation which she has delivered to almost 900 individuals at organisations including Penguin Random House, Jamie Oliver Group, Tesco, Greggs and Waitrose. She is board advisor at Be Inclusive Hospitality and committee member for diversity at the Guild of Food Writers.
Mallika is a finale judge for the Guild of Fine Food's Great Taste Awards, co-presents the awards ceremony and judges the ethical and sustainable category bursary annually. When not talking, writing or cooking, Mallika can be found diverting her teenage children away from UPFs in South London.
