NYC Cooking Program Connects People Across Cultures
New York City is a culinary smorgasbord. You don't have to go very far to get a taste of a cuisine that originates from a foreign land. The city abounds with ethnic restaurants. But making a dish at home with the same level of authenticity is another story. That's where the League of Kitchens comes in. It's a program in which immigrants teach cooking classes in their homes.
Afsari Jahan is one of the instructors for the League of Kitchens. She lives in an apartment in a walk-up building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. If you know anything about living in a New York City apartment, then you know that means she has a tiny kitchen.
Needless to say, Afsari's cooking classes are intimate. A few weeks ago, six students and this reporter were packed in Afsari's kitchen, as she was teaching us how to make dishes from her native Bangladesh.
Afsari said she grew up watching her mother cook, but really didn't start cooking herself until she moved to Singapore with her husband and young son. Because when it came to the food in Singapore...
"My son always complain mamma I don't like it," Afsari said. "And I start cooking and if I don't get the same flavor, I always call my mom. Like the trial and error process I learned."
And Afsari said thanks to her mom's advice and through trial and error, she became a pretty good cook. So after she and her family moved to the United States in 2000, she seized on an opportunity.
"Like the part-time catering, homecooking," Afsari said. "Sometimes I invited someone to give them lesson."
After that, opportunity knocked louder. Afsari met Lisa Gross, the founder of the League of Kitchens. Gross founded the organization in 2014 with a very simple premise.
"We live in New York City, the most diverse place on the planet," Gross said. "Wouldn't it be amazing to find people from all over the world who could teach you their family recipes and you could cook with them in their own kitchens and use food as a way to connect people across cultures?"
For Afsari Jahan, that's also what it's all about.
"I feel it's a good opportunity or platform to introduce my food with the culture to the other world," Afsari said.
And Elaine Tampson, an attorney from Long Island, was eating it up. She loved seeing how someone from another culture whips things up in their very own kitchen.
"The techniques are fascinating," Tampson said. "How she makes the individuals spices is fascinating to learn, so the whole workshop is wonderful."
The League of Kitchens has cooking instructors from all over the globe. Each with different stories and cooking techniques, but all with a taste for sharing their culture and preserving traditions.
