The How and the Why

While conducting research is challenging, a major part of the struggle appears to be deciding ‘what’ to research. Not only do you realise that you are committing anywhere from a semester (in the case of a Third-Year dissertation), a year and a half (in my case) to even a lifetime (Malinowski, I guess?).You need to have some amount of certainty that you will neither grow bored of it too quickly, nor hate it completely by the time you are done. Although we might be as passionate as Scheper-Hughes and desire to be a trailblazer, one also needs to account for the practicality of their chosen fieldwork, considering the time at hand, and safety of oneself and their interlocuters.

A Brief History of How I Got My Thesis Topic

It was sometime around February or March 2018 when I realised that the project, I had set my heart and soul on, right from my second year(of college) was no longer feasible. I had even written it into my application for the course; which was the real pinch, because it almost felt like I had to change my path completely. However, considering the resources at my disposal and the time I was allotted for fieldwork, it fell through, and I had to let it go. So, I took the evening off, ate some ice-cream and watched a happy film to mourn the passing of my dream project. 

The next day, I sat in front of my computer, ready to jot down any idea that came to me. I tried to think of of every single assignment and paper I had ever written. My geographical location and one of my electivesat the time, Danish Culture and Society were also things I tried to keep in mind during this process. I first started thinking about doing something around the simplicity of 20^th Century Danish design, since my previous idea was along the lines of design, when, eureka, it finally hit me! That thought current took me back to a very warm and sunny January afternoon in 2017 that I had spent doing an interview for my Sociology media undergraduate dissertation on masculinity and cooking shows.

During the interview, my respondent did something unusual. He asked me what I was planning to do with my life after I finished college. I told him that I was planning to pursue a Masters in Anthropology, with the University of Copenhagen being the school of my choice. Straying away from the typical reactions I usually received, that ranged from how far away I would be from my family, how far north it would be, how I would feel very cold, how a masters in the U.K. or U.S. would be a more feasible option.But instead, he asked me if I had ever heard of the Mad Symposium. The Mad Symposium (mad- Danish for food)is a very high-level conference on food, founded by Rene Redzepi, the co-owner of Noma- one of the best restaurants in the world. Redzepi is one of the signees of the Nordic Kitchen Manifesto which is credited with giving birth to the New Nordic Cuisine. Recalling this interaction with my respondent led to my eureka moment and it gave me the direction to work on a new project.

 Why Write About a Cuisine You Haven’t Even Tasted?

Despite having moved to a Nordic country since that interview, my knowledge on the topic of New Nordic food had not increased greatly. I had watched on my flight to Copenhagen.

After a preliminary reading, I realised that New Nordic food was a product of a manifesto that was created by chefs, but eventually picked up by Norden, a regional policy body, and has even found its way into programmes set up by municipalities. What eventually piqued my interest in this area was the notion that governments gave increasing priority to their culture which resulted in the birth of a culinary revolution in the form of the New Nordic food.

A few weeks later, a friend urged me to attend a conference which seemed to be in line with my topic on food in the Nordic region. Although I was very close to putting it off, I finally decided to go.

This conference happened to be ‘Terra Madre Nordic’ which promoted the consumption of indigenous, fair and organic food. Attending the conference definitely sold me on sticking to the topic of New Nordic food as it served as a platform where I could interact with my principal interlocutors (members of the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Slow Food Youth Copenhagen). And I finally even got a chance to taste some New Nordic products!

A plate of traditional reindeer meat

Rare cloudberry syrup

But hearing all of these policy makers, chefs, producers and artisans talk so passionately about their food and how proud they were of being able to call it their own, really made me think of the power of one’s cuisine in building self esteem in one’s identity.

Was I Being Too Basic?

Towards the end of the semester during which we designed our research, most of us had finalised our ideas. However, on hearing some of my friend’s ideas, I felt a little underwhelmed by my own idea. There were so many who were going to far away countries to study really sensitive issues in those regions. Where would studying a food culture of a privileged context measure up to studying the experience of motherhood or awareness of reproductive health in a post-colonial country? This weighed on me for a very long time because I felt like I was playing it a little too safe.

While some of my classmates were being warned about their and their interlocutors’ safety, most reactions to my projects were oohs and ahs asking if I was going to hang around the fancy restaurants and taste their food. 

However, I believe that perhaps I was doing something important. I received some validation earlier this year, when I heard that sustainability and security of food was a hot topic at the World Economic Forum’s conference in Davos. Given that I had attended the World Food Summit and that I am writing about a sustainable cuisine and the importance given to it by its people, not to mention food being the theme of this year’s EIDOS magazine, I felt like my research was relevant outside the bubble I lived in, which helped to lift my spirits. 

Reflecting on this, I have come to a conclusion. As long as you are asking questions that seem current and can be explained in (roughly) 5 sentences, depending on who you are talking to, and also contributing (in any small way) to part of a discipline, and are ethical about it, you are asking a valid question, and your research is valid.

Written by:

Tanya Pal,

Masters Student at the University of Copenhagen,

Ex-Xaverite, Class of 2017.

This is second in a series of posts on the New Nordic Cuisine. Missed the previous article? Explore the linkages of the New Nordic Cuisine to Nationalism and Sustainability.

Click here.