HEAR FROM

Fuchsia Dunlop

She was the first western student at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine in the 1990s, and has been researching Chinese food and culinary culture eversince. Fuchsia is the author of cook books such as The Food of Sichuan and the critically-acclaimed memoir Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper.

If you haven't read her books you might have read her work about Chinese cuisine for the Financial Times FT Weekend magazine and Observer Food Monthly, among other publications. Or have seen her as a Chinese food expert on TV shows including Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, David Chang’s Ugly Delicious and the Chinese documentary series Once Upon a Bite (fengwei renjian).

In other words a true expert on Chinese food and the one to ask how chili peppers have become part of Chinese and specifically Sichuanese cuisine. After all, chili peppers originate from Mexico and could not be found outside the America's before the Columbian Exchange. What can we learn from this change in food culture when it comes to our own ambitions to create a more sustainable and inclusive food system?

Sana Javeri Kadri

Researching the spice trade taught Sana that its brutal history still continued to give spices, consumers and the earth, a pretty raw deal. Since 2017, her company Diasporaco has worked to grow a better system, in the deepest sense of the world and give power and equity back to South Asian spice farmers.”

Sana will talk about how she is pursuing a different way of spice trade with her company. A trade that involves better payment for the farmer.