“Language, religion, music and storytelling all form part of the migrant’s cultural toolbox, but perhaps nothing provides more of a sense of identity than food.” This is a line from the introduction of Yasmin Khan’s travelogue-cookbook Ripe Figs, which charts her travels through Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, and is underpinned by the experience of her family’s migration from Kashmir to Punjab, Gilan in Iran to London. Also open on my desk here in the corner of the kitchen is Paola Bacchia’s Istria, which uses recipes to tell the story of her parents’ emigration from Istria and Italy to Melbourne in the 1950s, alongside stories of her own return visits.
These were two of my favourite cookbooks last year, both to read and to cook from. They are different, approaching distinct circumstances in different ways. Khan is bold in her retelling of journeys undertaken for protection and safety, to flee political, economic and social turmoil, and also challenges how certain journeys are seen as problematic. Bacchia, meanwhile, keeps her focus closely on her own family and the daily act of cooking, although within that are powerful hints as to the complex history and politics of the Croatian-Slovenian-Italian-Istrian peninsula, and the dramatic exodus and loss.
