Migrant Fare is a new cooking show
Series one and its companion zine are now available:
01 the intent
Why now?
The new food media we deserve merits an intentional perspective: a vantage point where our cuisine, culture, and stories are not tokenized but centered.
02 the work
Why Migrant Fare?
Migrant Fare is a mixed media art project that aims to interrogate the cost of migration and how that toll surfaces in the food culture of diaspora.
03 the future
Why care?
This work looks to imagine a new format for immigrant chefs to narratively share their foodways. If you’d like to be involved, please reach out!
Watch now
Chapter 1: Al dente state of mind
Making noodles while awaiting the arrival of a friend during uncertain times. “What do we give up in order to live to fight another day?”
Chapter 2: Cuan bai rou
A video call from China. Preparing dinner for housemates. “Who’s responsible for re-contextualizing my cultural identity?”
Chapter 3: Immigrant, settler, man tou
Mom plays matchmaker as breakfast dough is risen and shaped. “Are we immigrants or settlers?”
Chapter 4: Finale
Midnight BBQ. Series one finale. ”How does one survive the cognitive dissonance of a racist cultural environment that feigns innocence?”
Recipe Zine Ch.1–4
Includes prompts for educators to faciliate conversations and dream up activities that further explore the complex social questions posed in each chapter.
The project at hand
Reimagining food media
At its core this project aims to create a new philosophy for food content that doesn't treat American food culture and cooking as somehow separate from the reality of race and class in society. Most often, Migrant Fare doesn't ask "how do I make this dish..." it asks, "should I?"
Series one
This first series centers the cooking of Northeastern China while telling stories from the perspective of a first generation Chinese-American immigrant. Migrant Fare is a work of fiction, drawing from composite lived experiences. The intent is to apply this same format to center other stories and lived experiences in Series Two and beyond.
How it began
Migrant Fare was born out of a pop-up experience called Blackberry Bistro I hosted my senior year at Stanford where student artists came together to present memoir, fiction, audiolog, essays, each accompanied by a dish central to their story. That project exploited this idea that food adds texture to narrative and that somehow coming together around food makes these hard topics easier to talk about… Maybe we just wanted to believe that food is somehow neutral territory.
It isn’t.
If you’d like to learn more about Migrant Fare, talk food and art, or get involved with Series Two, reach out and say hi via DM @migrantfare on Twitter or Instagram. Email is migrantfare@gmail.com if you’re into that.