Comfort is I…culinary workshop w/ Jagoda Dobecka

We invite you to a series of culinary workshops led by our resident Polish artist, Jagoda Dobecka, whose work has long been concerned with the relationship between food and memory. During the two workshops, which will be interconnected, we will take a trip into the past together using our taste buds, recalling our comfort foods, and finally moving together into the “kitchen” where we will create a dinner together.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

At the outset, it’s worth noting that we are born with an innate preference for sweet and umami flavors—both of which are the primary tastes found in human breast milk. Researchers suggest that our responses to odors (including the smells of food) are almost entirely learned and rely on memory, although some of these responses emerge very early on. Ultimately, memory plays a central role in explaining nearly every facet of our eating behaviors and preferences.

As a form of memory, “nostalgia” carries various meanings, both in general and in relation to food. Much of the literature on food—particularly outside the field of anthropology—draws on the secular idea of sentimentality for a bygone past, treating food as a vessel for childhood and family memories. However, nostalgia can also be understood differently: not as the reliving of an emotional past, but as a yearning for times and places one has never actually experienced. The nostalgic recollection of comfort food, for instance, does not always stem from a genuinely happy childhood; instead, it can serve to construct a fictional narrative of such a childhood.

The two main themes of the workshops will be food and comfort. Together with the participants, we will use sensory memory to discuss dishes that bring us joy and a sense of security.

During the first workshop, we will talk about our associations with comfort in a general sense and in connection to food. The exchange of personal stories about experiences of comfort will be preceded by readings of texts that explore the relationship between food and memory. The culmination of this session will be the creation of personal recipes for favorite comfort foods. These collected recipes will form a digital publication, serving as an archive of our meeting.

The workshops are  in English.

The workshop is FREE and for all ages.

Registration for the workshop is required: https://forms.gle/PvnuksJGXSviiT5h8

In case of further questions, please contact us by email at monika.padejova@kair.sk.

The residency program is supported using public funding by the Slovak Art Council. The Slovak Art Council is the main partner of this project.