I am what I eat: Nadia Stokes

Photo: Miles Willis

This post first appeared on the Borough Market website as part of my series, I Am What I Eat, where I explore the links between food and identity, interviewing traders about the foods that are important to them and why.

To conclude my second series I asked my commissioning editor, Claire Ford, for someone who touched on some of the other themes in the series - someone interested in sustainability and/or environmental issues, someone with ethical and moral values around food, but perhaps a meat-eater to contrast with some of the other interviewees, someone who cares about where there food comes from. I didn't expect her to find someone who covered all these bases and several more. Nadia was a joy to interview; I hope you'll enjoy reading this article, as much as I enjoyed writing it.

“I had a very close relationship with food all my life. I grew up in Cyprus in a very, very, very small village in the middle of nowhere. I think it was about 80 inhabitants to 400, 600 goats. I don’t think I realised how much it was a part of me until I came to the UK.”

Nadia Stokes, co-owner of Gourmet Goat, first came to the UK to study law in her early 20s. The way people viewed food was the “biggest culture shock” for her. “Being in the supermarket in the UK I just remember being like ‘why is everything wrapped individually’ and ‘why is everyone buying single cucumbers?’” She came to terms with this in time, but “there was still a massive hole in my life of really, really local produce”.

Click to read more ...

I am what I eat: Borough Market Blog

In September I started a project for Borough Market, interviewing traders from different backgrounds about the foods that are important to them, the foods that make them feel nostalgic, that remind them of home. It has been a wonderful experience. I have met some really interesting people from diverse cultural backgrounds. They all had different stories to tell, but one thing that unites them is their passion for food and their joy in sharing it with others. 

As the series is coming to a close, I thought I would share the posts here too. In my first post I aimed to give a little context to the series by looking briefly at the concept of national cuisine and identity and then considering what that might mean to the individual. 

Click to read more ...

Interview with Shaun Richards: Food and National Identity

Meet Shaun Richards, my oldest friend. We first met when we were less than a year old in the UK when his family came to stay with mine in Cambridge. I have no memories of this, of course, but I do remember living with Shaun's family in their beautiful home on Sydney's northern beaches when I first moved to Australia. 

My family ended up moving to Balmain, about an hour's drive away, so I didn't see Shaun that often, but we developed a great friendship and I looked forward, in particular, to our big family Christmases. Food was a significant part of these days for me and I wondered whether Shaun had similar memories of them.

The theme of this interview follows on from the first podcast in this series, focusing again on food, memory and identity. This short video introduces Shaun and some of the themes in the interview.

I explore with Shaun whether he thinks there is such a thing as Australian cuisine and if there are any links between his national identity as an Australian and his foodways. It turns out that for Shaun being an Australian is no longer a big part of his identity. So what is? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Interview with Alex Carvajal: Food and national identity

Introducing one of my dearest friends, Alex Carvajal. This is the first in a series of interviews with friends, classmates, colleagues and acquaintances talking about their food interests (and mine).

Alex and I have known each other since I moved to London about 6 years ago. I had known him for about two years before I found out that he used to be a chef. That night we bonded over our love of food, and it has continued to be a focal point of our conversations ever since.

I have created this short video to introduce you to Alex and some of the themes covered in the interview. 

The main focus of this interview is on his Colombian heritage and how this has influenced his foodways in Britain. This ties in with the theme on the blog this week, which is around food and identity. In the interview Alex talks about his memories of Colombia, the important links for him between food and family, as well as sharing food, and his take on Colombian and British cuisines.

Having spoken to Alex so much about food in the past, I was surprised how much I learnt in conducting this interview. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Food and identity: the sentimental stuff

For all that wider social and cultural processes, such as globalisation and commercialisation, have a part to play in shaping the links between food and identity (see my last post), for now I want to focus on the part we can all relate to: childhood memories, nostalgia, family connections and traditional values.

The unit we did on food, memory and identity for the MA Anthropology of Food was one of my favourite topics and has become the main focus of my studies. The core readings we did for that unit all touched on migration in one way or another and this is probably why it resonated with me.

I was born in Cambridge, England, but grew up in Sydney, Australia. I have always felt a strong attachment to England, one that my sister, who was born in Australia, does not share. I always felt compelled to come back here. As a kid growing up in Australia, I was proud of my English heritage. In some respects it defined me, or I wanted it to. I was sad when I returned to England and people told me I had an Australian accent.

Click to read more ...