Nisa-Nashim is proud to be delivering a unique creative project in celebration of HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, aimed at bringing together women of faith to explore our love of food, and how our recipes and cooking relate to our culture, heritage, upbringing, and familial and societal connections.

Some quote from the first session:

“I was taught was to honour the food, not to waste it, ‘Bismillah’, in the name of Allah.”

“Chicken soup with kneidlach, my grandparents’ tiny apartment in the Bronx, where we all gathered for Passover.”

“Mum’s carrot rice kheer, Grandma’s Habshi halwa took ages to make.”

“Our own wheat, our own buffaloes’ ghee, home made butter, and from butter came the ghee, churned at home with a ‘madhani’ – needed a lot of strength to churn! My childhood memories.”

“Grandma’s recipe notebook – borscht, Queen Mary Cake – how far to assimilate?”

“Ramadan: I was told I had done a good deed, and then… my mum’s sumptuous, unctuous, scrumptious parathas.”

Workshop 1 Writing our Food Memories: introduction to the project, tips and tricks on writing. Poem prompts to inspire participants to write about early food memories. Sunday 24 July 10am-12 noon.

Workshop 2 Generation to Generation: Family recipes, how we learned to cook, how our cooking changed from our mothers’ and grandmothers’? Wednesday 27 July 7pm-9pm.

Workshop 3 Special Food/Dishes for Particular Festivals: Are the traditional dishes the same, or have they changed and taken on other influences? Parallels with social/cultural changes within our communities Monday 8 August 7pm-9pm

Workshop 4 Food and Culture in our Diasporas: Food requirements, mixing, integration etc. Fasting and feasting in Islam and Judaism. Hunger and poverty Wednesday 10 August 7pm-9pm

Celebration Event Presentation of work by participants reading from their work. Guest speaker from each religion talking about food – and sharing food together! Sunday 14 August 10:30-1pm