daughter of the empire and the conquered
homecoming by lee 이 therese
i never know if i am being called to dinner as the diner or the feast
Food has always been more than just nourishment in my life. Cooking and eating were practices in community, comfort, connection, and joy—a practice my family and I tended to daily. Even as a child I had started down the path of food studies without ever knowing where I was walking. My childhood was filled with cooking shows and cooking lessons, trips to grocery stores and restaurants that felt like my favorite field trips, and my family sitting down to dinner nearly every night. It was a path that has led me to now, this Spring 2023 ILC and my Senior Capstone Project where I seek to bring together my passions for food studies, specifically foodways within diasporic groups, cultural studies, and community-based journalism. I have long been a cook and a writer, so it only seemed fitting to take on the task of creating my own cookbook to serve as my Senior Capstone Project. Understanding food as home, and what that home can mean when connected to a complex cultural identity, is the crux of my work this quarter and what I seek to answer with this project.