Cooking Up Consciousness Podcast

Zoe speaks with New York Times bestselling cookbook author Julia Turshen about her childhood, the impact of diet culture and media culture growing up, her lifelong work in food, her latest cookbook, her current farm job, her work with Equity At The Table (EATT) and God’s Love we Deliver KEY TAKEAWAYS * Food is the pathway into the heritage of other cultures. By experiencing new taste sensations, we develop the desire to learn more about where they came from. * In the media, and especially the magazine industry, there is a tendency to promote the idea that thin is beautiful - but healthy is even more beautiful. * We reduce anxiety and doubt about sexuality when we bring our children up with acceptance. Julia's own upbringing was one of diversity and inclusivity, which made the process of coming out so much more easy. * Cooking provides us with a sense of agency, and allows us to be in complete control of a part of our lives, which is rare in this world. BEST MOMENTS 'I grew up in a place where there was a lot of diversity. So I grew up eating a big range of things' 'I think it's incredibly common that a lot of us come from a history of disordered eating or eating disorders because there is an obsessiveness with food' 'Reading can be fun! Reading doesn't always have to be serious' 'When we cook, we have control over what we're doing, which is a nice feeling in a world where we actually have no control over anything' VALUABLE RESOURCES Julia Turshen Twitter - https://twitter.com/turshen [https://twitter.com/turshen] Julia Turshen Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/turshen/ [https://www.instagram.com/turshen/] Julia Turshen - https://www.juliaturshen.com [https://www.juliaturshen.com] ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Adjonyoh is a writer, chef, and food justice activist from South-East London on a mission to bring African food to the masses. As a mixed-race, Black queer woman born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother from a working-class background who works at the intersections of food, culture, identity, and politics, Zoe Adjonyoh is driven to create change in the food landscape. Zoe has taken her fresh interpretation of classic Ghananian flavours to venues across London, Berlin, Accra, and New York and become a leader in the new African cuisine revolution. Through her supper clubs, kitchen residencies, mobile catering, a former restaurant space in Brixton, her highly successful cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.co.uk/shop/zoes-ghana-kitchen-cookbook]: An Introduction to New African Cuisine - from Ghana With Love, and a thriving e-commerce spice business, Zoe has sought to inspire African food entrepreneurs, cooks, and chefs from the continent and the diaspora across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoe has held events, demonstrations, and talks in addition to launching a crowdfunding campaign to support some of the most vulnerable in her community. In 2020, Zoe founded the thought leadership platform Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/team] for Black and non-white people working within hospitality and food media. Join Zoe as she dismantles, disrupts, and decolonises the food industry while supporting marginalised communities and building a more equitable food system. NOTES Thank you for cooking up consciousness with me! Love & light- Zoe Adjonyoh Follow Cooking Up Consciousness on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/cookingupconsciousness] for conversations and community and visit www.zoeadjonyoh.com [http://www.zoeadjonyoh.com] to subscribe to all of Zoe’s consciousness-raising projects including Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/] and Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.com/]. For more about Zoe and her work, follow @zoeadjonyoh [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/] on IG and on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@zoeadjonyoh]. Please visit Patreon to support this self-funded podcast from as little as $4 per month. CREDITS Executive Producer, Creator, and Host- Zoe Adjonyoh Producer- Dani Dillon of Lunch Group Graphic & Website Design- Sara Held Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Zoe speaks with Samah Dada, cookbook author and founder of her blog DADAEATS, about her childhood love of dolphins, the power of representation in food and beverage media, her current love of Harry Styles and Justin Bieber, and the many food experiences that have shaped who she is. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Sometimes we need to look outside of our own world in order to recognise that people like ourselves exist, and that they thrive. The world is bigger than we sometimes believe it to be. * There’s nothing glamorous about working every hour of the day, although there seems to be this perception in the media, and through influencers. Life is about caring for yourself. * When you find the thing you love to do in life, it’s never a job. It becomes a passion – a force that drives us, and money becomes less important than this drive. * When we take our place in front of the world, we are empowering those like us – we are reassuring them that they too can find their own place. BEST MOMENTS ‘It transcends more than what you’re putting on the table. It’s the intention behind it’ ‘It showed me that the word’s a bit bigger’ ‘When you’re being present – doing something because you love it – it stops being work’ ‘I love that you’re bringing your culture back, and using your platform to be a guiding light – to be a representative for other young women who look like you’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Samah Dada Twitter - https://twitter.com/dadaeats [https://twitter.com/dadaeats] Samah Dada Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dadaeats [https://www.instagram.com/dadaeats] Dada Eats - https://dadaeats.com [https://dadaeats.com] ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Adjonyoh is a writer, chef, and food justice activist from South-East London on a mission to bring African food to the masses. As a mixed-race, Black queer woman born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother from a working-class background who works at the intersections of food, culture, identity, and politics, Zoe Adjonyoh is driven to create change in the food landscape. Zoe has taken her fresh interpretation of classic Ghananian flavours to venues across London, Berlin, Accra, and New York and become a leader in the new African cuisine revolution. Through her supper clubs, kitchen residencies, mobile catering, a former restaurant space in Brixton, her highly successful cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.co.uk/shop/zoes-ghana-kitchen-cookbook]: An Introduction to New African Cuisine - from Ghana With Love, and a thriving e-commerce spice business, Zoe has sought to inspire African food entrepreneurs, cooks, and chefs from the continent and the diaspora across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoe has held events, demonstrations, and talks in addition to launching a crowdfunding campaign to support some of the most vulnerable in her community. In 2020, Zoe founded the thought leadership platform Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/team] for Black and non-white people working within hospitality and food media. Join Zoe as she dismantles, disrupts, and decolonises the food industry while supporting marginalised communities and building a more equitable food system. NOTES Thank you for cooking up consciousness with me! Love & light- Zoe Adjonyoh Follow Cooking Up Consciousness on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/cookingupconsciousness] for conversations and community and visit www.zoeadjonyoh.com [http://www.zoeadjonyoh.com] to subscribe to all of Zoe’s consciousness-raising projects including Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/] and Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.com/]. For more about Zoe and her work, follow @zoeadjonyoh [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/] on IG and on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@zoeadjonyoh]. Please visit Patreon to support this self-funded podcast from as little as $4 per month. CREDITS Executive Producer, Creator, and Host- Zoe Adjonyoh Producer- Dani Dillon of Lunch Group Graphic & Website Design- Sara Held Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Zoe speaks with Amber Crowder, a returning citizen who wishes to destigmatize and humanize what it means to be formerly incarcerated. They speak about Amber’s incarceration experience, her work through The Been Down Project, her entrepreneurship, and prison food. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Motivations come in all shapes and sizes. For many parents, the yearning to make each day as special as possible for our children is what drives us to do better. * The legal system needs to find alternatives to incarceration, especially when it comes to parents leaving behind children. Sentencing a parent is the same as sentencing the child. * A prison sentence doesn’t end with being released from incarceration. The stigma that hangs over a person upon release is a life sentence in itself. * Surviving incarceration can lead to lifelong trauma, but we must endeavour to remember that it was an experienced that we survived, and that we must keep going. BEST MOMENTS ‘I am always obsessively looking for truth’ ‘I have to get up and do what I need to do’ ‘Prison is trauma, and it’s an act of trauma you’re re-living every day’ ‘There’s no chance for redemption when that label is put upon you’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Amber Crowder Twitter - https://twitter.com/beendownproject [https://twitter.com/beendownproject] Been Down Project - https://www.thebeendownproject.com/about [https://www.thebeendownproject.com/about] ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Adjonyoh is a writer, chef, and food justice activist from South-East London on a mission to bring African food to the masses. As a mixed-race, Black queer woman born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother from a working-class background who works at the intersections of food, culture, identity, and politics, Zoe Adjonyoh is driven to create change in the food landscape. Zoe has taken her fresh interpretation of classic Ghananian flavours to venues across London, Berlin, Accra, and New York and become a leader in the new African cuisine revolution. Through her supper clubs, kitchen residencies, mobile catering, a former restaurant space in Brixton, her highly successful cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.co.uk/shop/zoes-ghana-kitchen-cookbook]: An Introduction to New African Cuisine - from Ghana With Love, and a thriving e-commerce spice business, Zoe has sought to inspire African food entrepreneurs, cooks, and chefs from the continent and the diaspora across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoe has held events, demonstrations, and talks in addition to launching a crowdfunding campaign to support some of the most vulnerable in her community. In 2020, Zoe founded the thought leadership platform Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/team] for Black and non-white people working within hospitality and food media. Join Zoe as she dismantles, disrupts, and decolonises the food industry while supporting marginalised communities and building a more equitable food system. NOTES Thank you for cooking up consciousness with me! Love & light- Zoe Adjonyoh Follow Cooking Up Consciousness on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/cookingupconsciousness] for conversations and community and visit www.zoeadjonyoh.com [http://www.zoeadjonyoh.com] to subscribe to all of Zoe’s consciousness-raising projects including Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/] and Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.com/]. For more about Zoe and her work, follow @zoeadjonyoh [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/] on IG and on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@zoeadjonyoh]. Please visit Patreon to support this self-funded podcast from as little as $4 per month. CREDITS Executive Producer, Creator, and Host- Zoe Adjonyoh Producer- Dani Dillon of Lunch Group Graphic & Website Design- Sara Held Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Zoe speaks with culinary historian, food writer, and Griot Michael W. Twitty (@thecookinggene) about third person interpretation, African American culinary history in the Old South, genealogy and food heritage, and storytelling through foodways. KEY TAKEAWAYS * When it comes to the issue of self-dislike and self-hatred and its effects, we must be as honest and as open as possible. We have to remove it at the root, and we cannot do this unless we know where to dig. * Cooking is a political act. Cooking is a revolutionary act, but we must want it to be. We have to find the will and the meaning. * The ability to suspend one's belief plays a vital part in our personal learning process. Stimulating the imagination is a foundational building block of self-development. * A recipe is a story that is passed down through the generations, changing incrementally as new generations add their own tales to the cooking pot. It represents the heritage and voyage of those who came before. BEST MOMENTS 'One of the key ingredients is resistance, acknowledgement, honorance and respect' 'Food tells stories. Food keeps people's memories alive' 'It's mental health. It's digging into the root - uprooting all that stuff' 'I want Black people to understand in particular, the reason why I do what I do is not to revisit the trauma. it's to celebrate our joyous past and present' VALUABLE RESOURCES Michael W Twitty Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thecookinggene/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/thecookinggene/?hl=en] The Cooking Gene - https://thecookinggene.com [https://thecookinggene.com] Michael W Twitty Twitter - https://twitter.com/KosherSoul [https://twitter.com/KosherSoul?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor] ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Adjonyoh is a writer, chef, and food justice activist from South-East London on a mission to bring African food to the masses. As a mixed-race, Black queer woman born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother from a working-class background who works at the intersections of food, culture, identity, and politics, Zoe Adjonyoh is driven to create change in the food landscape. Zoe has taken her fresh interpretation of classic Ghananian flavours to venues across London, Berlin, Accra, and New York and become a leader in the new African cuisine revolution. Through her supper clubs, kitchen residencies, mobile catering, a former restaurant space in Brixton, her highly successful cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.co.uk/shop/zoes-ghana-kitchen-cookbook]: An Introduction to New African Cuisine - from Ghana With Love, and a thriving e-commerce spice business, Zoe has sought to inspire African food entrepreneurs, cooks, and chefs from the continent and the diaspora across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoe has held events, demonstrations, and talks in addition to launching a crowdfunding campaign to support some of the most vulnerable in her community. In 2020, Zoe founded the thought leadership platform Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/team] for Black and non-white people working within hospitality and food media. Join Zoe as she dismantles, disrupts, and decolonises the food industry while supporting marginalised communities and building a more equitable food system. NOTES Thank you for cooking up consciousness with me! Love & light- Zoe Adjonyoh Follow Cooking Up Consciousness on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/cookingupconsciousness] for conversations and community and visit www.zoeadjonyoh.com [http://www.zoeadjonyoh.com] to subscribe to all of Zoe’s consciousness-raising projects including Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/] and Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.com/]. For more about Zoe and her work, follow @zoeadjonyoh [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/] on IG and on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@zoeadjonyoh]. Please visit Patreon to support this self-funded podcast from as little as $4 per month. CREDITS Executive Producer, Creator, and Host- Zoe Adjonyoh Producer- Dani Dillon of Lunch Group Graphic & Website Design- Sara Held Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Zoe speaks with writer Alicia Kennedy about finding community and connection growing up, new food writing, ethical eating under capitalism, and her forthcoming book from Beacon Press. KEY TAKEAWAYS * Books and stories allow us to find a creative way to escape when the world around us seems intent on making us conform. The reason we identify with certain themes or characters is because they reflect the ideal that we long to pursue. * Finding our voice is a long process, and can be made easier by surrounding ourselves with those who hold similar values and ideals. By creating this community of like-minded souls, we ground ourselves and build confidence. * We must seek to move towards more conscious capitalism, working for better labor rights, and more equality in the food chain. * People must become more aware about the better choices that can be made. We often feel empowered to make consumer choices versus taking political action. BEST MOMENTS ‘I always had this sense of sense of being out of time with my own people’ ‘I’ve always found my people and my inspiration and my will to go on, from those who are close to me’ ‘When I started to write about food, I just had my whole world open up. Like I wasn’t struggling anymore to say what I wanted to say’ ‘Crisis affects the ways in which people eat’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Alicia Kennedy - https://alicia-kennedy.com [https://alicia-kennedy.com] Alicia Kennedy Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliciakennedy [https://twitter.com/aliciakennedy] ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Adjonyoh is a writer, chef, and food justice activist from South-East London on a mission to bring African food to the masses. As a mixed-race, Black queer woman born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother from a working-class background who works at the intersections of food, culture, identity, and politics, Zoe Adjonyoh is driven to create change in the food landscape. Zoe has taken her fresh interpretation of classic Ghananian flavours to venues across London, Berlin, Accra, and New York and become a leader in the new African cuisine revolution. Through her supper clubs, kitchen residencies, mobile catering, a former restaurant space in Brixton, her highly successful cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.co.uk/shop/zoes-ghana-kitchen-cookbook]: An Introduction to New African Cuisine - from Ghana With Love, and a thriving e-commerce spice business, Zoe has sought to inspire African food entrepreneurs, cooks, and chefs from the continent and the diaspora across the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoe has held events, demonstrations, and talks in addition to launching a crowdfunding campaign to support some of the most vulnerable in her community. In 2020, Zoe founded the thought leadership platform Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/team] for Black and non-white people working within hospitality and food media. Join Zoe as she dismantles, disrupts, and decolonises the food industry while supporting marginalised communities and building a more equitable food system. NOTES Thank you for cooking up consciousness with me! Love & light- Zoe Adjonyoh Follow Cooking Up Consciousness on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/cookingupconsciousness] for conversations and community and visit www.zoeadjonyoh.com [http://www.zoeadjonyoh.com] to subscribe to all of Zoe’s consciousness-raising projects including Black Book [https://www.blackbook-global.com/] and Ghana Kitchen [https://www.zoesghanakitchen.com/]. For more about Zoe and her work, follow @zoeadjonyoh [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/] on IG and on Clubhouse [https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@zoeadjonyoh]. Please visit Patreon to support this self-funded podcast from as little as $4 per month. CREDITS Executive Producer, Creator, and Host- Zoe Adjonyoh Producer- Dani Dillon of Lunch Group Graphic & Website Design- Sara Held Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/zoeadjonyoh/?hl=en] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.