Rebecca Adams

By Aaliyah Adams

Last week, I interviewed my mom, Rebecca Adams. Mostly for the fact that she’s the main person in my life I look up to, but also because I know that she has an interesting story and mixed culture in our family. I set up my phone and a small table upstairs in the loft once she was done with work so we could have a calm and ready environment to do the interview. One major question I asked her is about the food she grew up with, and what it meant to her and why. The second major question I asked her was who cooked the food. My great grandma. A big story, or main thing that stood out to me that she shared were the ‘treats’ or ‘special meals’ that my mom and her siblings got growing up. My mom told me about a specific brand of pizza that my great grandma would buy mostly on fridays for my mom and everyone else. And it’s funny, she still buys the same brand of pizza for me and my little brother when we go to her house. I learned a lot more than I thought I knew from my mom doing this interview. I think I can say that it was a good experience for the both of us.

Irv and Orah Kaplan

By Alma Kaplan

Creating food is an art, an art that can be passed down, molded , and cherished. Food is love, and in that love live two grandparents who appreciate and treasure the history of the culinary arts. From brisket to Sunday morning lox and bagels, Irv and Orah Kaplan tell their story from the Jewish American perspective. Most Jewish women didn’t even dare to own a cookbook, yet Orah’s mother used the settlement cookbook to lend her a hand. With a family of butchers, the food must be spectacular: Veel, little smoked fish, and lamb chops. But it doesn’t end at that, kugel and gefilte fish were just as prominent as the classic American meat. In the end, the lesson learned was that while they bicker and they laugh, another string that bonds them is the one of food.

Jessica Wainman

By Atticus Wainman

I interviewed Jessica Wainman, a teacher and avid traveler, who grew up in San Diego. Her mother could never cook very well, so she grew up with many processed foods. After graduating from college she moved to South Korea where she taught English for a little over a year. Korea was a cultural overload with its customs and foods. Same with Thailand where her favorite food was mango sticky rice. One of her favorite country’s was Thailand, because of the natural activities and the food.

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Jessica also made photo albums and scrapbooks about my sister and I growing up but also her experience in foreign countries. She also has many home movies about her adventures with her family or husband. One of her favorites of these movies is of her grandparents who had sadly passed away in 2009-10. Another would be of her mother when she was young. But the majority of the videos are of family vacations.

Robby Vaughn

By Aynsley Vaughn

Food has always been at the center of Robby Vaughn’s life,from attending culinary school, to working in several restaurants, to even the food he cooks for his family now. He grew up in New Orleans Louisiana, where food played a large impact on his upbringing. He said, "When I was younger, we would decide each morning what we wanted for dinner, and spend the rest of the day preparing it. Dinner was a really big thing in our household." His family often helped cook for large events, many of which took several days to prepare. He spoke of how many of these events were often local traditions, such as Mardi Gras or the crawfish boil, and how each one required specific meals. Many of the recipes used can be traced back decades, and a lot of the food they ate had come from old family recipes passed down and modified from generation to generation. He even keeps an old family cookbook with a large collection of recipes from various family members. Growing up in NOLA has greatly affected the way he cooks food now, and the type of food he cooks, along with the spices and herbs used, and the flavors.

Catherine and Russell Wargin

By Tierra Parkinson

Catherine & Russell Wargin

The purpose of Tierra’s interview was to learn about family and food traditions. For example, the kinds of traditions that the interviewee had when they were younger and the traditions and food that they eat and celebrate today. Tierra interviewed Catherine Wargin, and Russell Wargin, her great-grandparents because they both were born and raised in a very different time. Two major questions that she asked were, “How did food impact your home and family when you were a child?” and “Is there a particular comfort food that you like that either your parents or someone in your family cooked for you? If so, what is it?” One major finding that Tierra found during her interview was that Russell grew up during WWII and they had to ration things like food, but during his and his younger sister’s birthday their mother would make them a merry-go-round cake with animal crackers lining the side of it. Another major finding was a tradition, called the Feast of the Seven Fishes, that Catherine and her family celebrated, and that she still celebrates now. Overall, she learned from her interviewees that food can connect family through the generations, and even if you don’t have the most lavish or expensive food and dinner, you still get to eat it with the ones you love.

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Dr. Eldridge Greer

By Henry Krieger

How does food shape a community and community shape food? We asked these questions and others to Dr. Eldridge Greer, an expert on barbecue and the traditions that go with it, to discover more about food, and how it has shaped him as a person. Barbecue is not one set way to cook, there are regional varieties with different meats like pork and beef, and fuels like charcoal or assorted woods (but no gas), all creating a community that comes together to eat as one, with some people supplying barbecue, as well as coleslaw, greens, and traditional mac and cheese. We learned how food can help people create new relationships and strengthen existing ones. People can get an understanding of food as a tradition and barbecue, all thanks to the wonderful experience of talking with Dr. Greer.

Khadija Zahri is an elementary school French teacher from Morocco currently living with her family in Denver. She sat down with me to discuss her history with food in Morocco and her journey to America at twenty five. Growing up in Morocco as the eldest of 6 kids, Khadija took a lot of responsibility for helping her mother with cooking and other chores. During that time, she perfected all of the recipes that have been passed down in her family. We discussed her family’s food traditions and the impact that they still have on her. One story that she shared was about having couscous every Friday. Every family made couscous a different way and she could smell it while walking home from school. After coming to America, Khadija started a family and has continued to cook traditional Morrocan food for them. Khadija feels that her experiences have helped her become a better, stronger person. Her interview demonstrates how your food traditions as a child can shape the rest of one’s life and how that can help to become a better person.

Khadija Zahri

By: Liliana Feeny

Pross Tomusange

By Mikayla Ssemakula

Does change have its benefits? Can culture clash be a factor of who we become? Pross Tomusange, mother of 2, shines light on her experiences of growing up in an era of dead ends and new beginnings. In her community of Wakiso, Uganda, food was a way of investing and nurturing future generations. Mrs. Tomusange was taught valuable lessons such as, thanking the person who prepared the meal; how to prepare staple meals such as plantains, peanut butter soup, and true value of a meal. Learning how to follow the cultural manual book, step by step, bit by bit. As more foreigners entered the growing nation, roots evolved, thus becoming distinct among others. Mrs. Tomusange reveals the untold truths of self- identity, representation, and belonging. The sugar , spice,and everything nice.

Megan Eliassen

By Tom Sankovitz

On November 5th, I interviewed my mum, Megan Eliassen, who grew up in New Hampshire, and ended up traveling all over the world. In this interview, we dive into what She has experienced with food culture and traditions. Her first experiences were in her childhood, food played a big role in her life back then. As an example, she remembers that she would make Christmas cookies with her mum every year. We then talk about the food and food traditions she experienced while she lived overseas. One really interesting thing that Mum said is that in Nepal they eat the same dish, Dal Bhat, for all three meals of the day. After that, we talk about the traditions and recipes that have been passed down in her family and how food plays a central role in extended family get-togethers. Through her experiences, she learned that moving to a country with different food culture and traditions is important to having a well-rounded view on our own culture.

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Kelli Daniels

By Christopher Jones

Kelli Daniels… An interesting human being… Being a chef, she has been through a lot, more than most actually. She was on many different cooking shows, and she was pretty great. She is very precise with her answers, and is always ready to talk. Honestly… Was a little surprised by her outgoingness, and it was enjoyable to hear her answer my questions. She actually didn’t go to culinary school, but after she pursued her dream career! She was very willing to come onto the Zoom to be apart of the interview, and we had a lot of fun talking, and getting to know her better. I asked her a question during the interview: “Do you have anything against fast food; being a chef?” And she said that she doesn’t have anything against fast food, she just thinks that they need to find healthier ways for fast food, that's why she opened her food truck business.