Culinary Traditions and Factors Influencing Food Choice

Every plate has reasons

No traditional dish was invented at random. The people who first cooked it used what grew, was reared or was caught near them, followed the rules of their religion and culture, cooked with the equipment they had, and ate at the times their working day allowed. A culinary tradition is all of those reasons, passed down. The person choosing food today has reasons too: cost, health, time, the occasion, a belief, what the label says. This topic is about both sets of reasons, and about what happens when they meet: adapting a traditional recipe for the way people live now. OCR asks you to study British cuisine plus at least two international cuisines of your choice. It names none, so the cuisines in this module are examples only.

Words for food traditions and choices

Six terms this topic is built on.

Which diet is it?

Each person describes what they ate today. Decide which diet they follow. You have three lives.

Then and now

The reasons behind a traditional dish are not the reasons of the person eating it today.

Why was it changed?

One meal for everyone

You are cooking one main course for a group that includes a Muslim friend, a Jewish friend who keeps kosher and a Hindu friend. Select the TWO dishes most likely to suit all three.

• A lentil dhal with rice
• Roasted vegetable pasta with a tomato sauce
• A beef lasagne with a cheese sauce
• Pork sausages and mash

Name it, then say what it means on the plate

OCR names six religions for this topic: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafarianism and Sikhism. Learn this list rather than one from another board. A strong answer names the belief, says what it changes about the food, and says "many" or "some" followers, because not everyone keeps every rule the same way. Ethical beliefs count as well: the four vegetarian diets, animal welfare, buying local produce and choosing organic food.

A guest keeps Ital

A Rastafarian guest tells you they keep an Ital diet. Which dish is the best fit?

• A fresh vegetable and bean stew with little or no salt
• Barbecued pork ribs
• A tinned soup full of preservatives
• Fish in a beer batter

Adapt it in five moves

Put the steps for adapting a traditional recipe in order.

• Find out the traditional ingredients and cooking method
• Decide what the person eating it today needs
• Pick out what makes the dish itself, which must stay
• Change only the parts that do not fit that person
• Cook it, taste it and check it still works

A song passed down

Picture a song a family has sung at every wedding for generations. A teenager wants to play it on an electric guitar instead of a fiddle, and a little faster so people can dance. If the tune and the words survive, the family still hears their song. If the tune goes, it is a new song with an old name. The skill is knowing which part is the song and which part is just how it used to be played. A recipe is the same. Some parts make it that dish; others only reflect how people once lived.

Complete the family meal

Nadia is cooking the British _____ with potatoes, vegetables and gravy. Her brother eats eggs and dairy foods but no meat or fish, so he is a _____ vegetarian, and she makes him a nut roast. Her aunt is Hindu and, like many Hindus, avoids _____, so the meat is chicken. Everyone gets home late, so she roasts the vegetables on one tray to save _____. Changing a dish like this is called _____ a traditional recipe.

Spot the message from the maker

A shopper thinks aloud while choosing a breakfast cereal. Tap the TWO thoughts that come from labelling or marketing.

• The front of the box says it is high in fibre.
• A footballer in an advert eats this every morning.
• Tomorrow is a birthday breakfast for my sister.
• I only have a few coins left until Friday.
• I am running a race on Saturday.

Build the balanced point

Assemble a balanced sentence about adapting traditional recipes.

Plan the celebration buffet

You are planning a buffet for the eighteenth birthday of a friend. Four guests raise something with you. Decide what to do each time.

• One guest is vegan. You were going to serve a cream trifle as the only dessert. What do you do?
• A Jewish guest keeps kosher. The main dish is beef in a creamy sauce. What is the fair change?
• A Buddhist guest says they avoid harming animals and do not eat meat. Which dish do you add?
• A guest asks what is in the samosas, because of what they can and cannot eat. What do you do?

Adapt a traditional dish

Choose a traditional dish from British cuisine or from an international cuisine you have studied. Explain the traditions behind it, then explain how you would adapt it for one group of people today, keeping what makes it that dish.

• The dish, its cuisine and its traditional ingredients
• One reason from the past that shaped it
• The group you are adapting it for, and their need
• What you change, and what you keep
• Whether it is still that dish