Celebrating and protecting the heritage of food, tradition and culture

Yaya Eleni made many wonderful things in her kitchen. When I was in my teens, she taught me how to bake perfect, traditional yeast bread. Like her, I learned to anticipate with feverish excitement the moment when the dough morphs beautifully in my hands from the command of my methodical kneading. I regretted for years after she died that I didn’t diligently practice her method of making phyllo pastry. It was a mistake that I let that knowledge slip from me.

Last year I asked my friend Rita if she would speak to her mother about my desire to learn how to make phyllo. Rita’s mother, also named Voula, made a pita that was delicious. Her phyllo was as perfectly thin and as tender-crsip as Yaya’s. I was anxious to take on the challenge and at last learn the technique of this culinary treat that rooted me to my culture. In January 2009 we got together in her kitchen and from her hands, she passed her wisdom to me.

When I think of the skills that we might lose if we do not protect and preserve the culinary traditions and knowledge from our elders, my heart aches.

Heritage, acted out and celebrated every day in the kitchen and around the meal-time table, is a vital historical guide on our journey to [re]discover the joys of eating and understanding the importance of where our food comes from, who makes it, and how it’s made. It was this feeling, and a quote from Alberto Capatti, editor of SLOW 17, that inspired me to propose the Wisdom Workshops at a Toronto Convivium meeting last spring.

“A fistful of buckwheat in a soup, a smidgeon of nutmeg, the smoke arising from grilled meat—these are all traces that lead us back to the past; traces of humanity. Let’s follow them.”

We can follow the traces of our humanity by recollecting and preserving the special moments we have lived in the kitchens, the gardens, the local markets of our elders. Do you know someone in your family who makes a killer Jamaican jerk rub that takes your mouth, in an instant, on a Caribbean odyssey?  Do you marvel at the steady quickness of your Auntie’s hands while she makes the gyoza your mouth is eagerly anticipating biting into?

I’d love to hear from anyone of our members who knows a wise and wonderful elder who would be willing to pass their special recipe, culinary technique, or kitchen alchemy on to the members of their community—as part of a grassroots intergenerational learning series launching soon, called The Wisdom Workshops.  Our volunteer team will coordinate everything for our guest teachers and provide any assistance required. We’ll hold the individual workshops in spaces within the community where our guest teachers live—to give spirit, connectivity and strength to our communities. I’ll archive the stories, the recipes, and the memories of these workshops to share with you in our newsletter and on our website. Each event will celebrate our SLOW philosophy and the commitment to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible.

Please get in touch with me via email if you know someone who would like to participate in this project, if you have a story to tell, or if you’d like more information on the Wisdom Workshops. I’m also looking for volunteers to help me coordinate individual events.

Voula Halliday / vou@sympatico.ca