Cooking Exploration by Yingzi Ni

More and more Asian students go to study abroad. But a lot of Asian students always try to stay in their safety zone because of cultural and language barriers. They have a huge problem when having to communicate with foreigners. This project focuses on the communication between Asian and European students. To Build a deep connection between Asians and European. As well as to help Asian students reduce loneliness and to benefit from cultural diversity.

Throughout the project I found other Asian students to talk about their experience of studying abroad. A lot of them have problems when it comes to communicating with foreigners. Many of them use cooking as a way to escape the feeling of loneliness. When I asked Europeans about how they see Asian students, they told me that they don’t have so many Asian friends, but they are quite interested in Asian food. So I did a workshop Which invites Asian and European students to cook food together. The whole atmosphere became very nice, and the participants opened up and talked about their lives.

The concept is a DIY kit where both the European and Asian students can exchange their recipes. Through cooking fosters new relationships and a better understanding of each culture. The kit includes a taste preference card which is for knowing the taste preferences of the student you are exchanging recipes with, the package contains both recipes and ingredients.

The concept has an Instagram account to promote & share the product and to show the whole activity on how it works. The concept will also be cooperated with some parties at the university. It will be possible for the students to pick up the DIY kits at the school. Then asian students can invite a foreign to take part in this activity. They need to prepare the food and recipes for each other. Then exchange the food. The asian will cook European recipes and European will cook asian recipes. They can choose to cook together or cook alone and talk on the phone. Afterward they can share the pictures and experience on the Instagram account.