Breaking bread breaking borders

Breaking bread and breaking borders

Campaigner-turned-food writer YASMIN KHAN’s third recipe book, Ripe Figs, covers not just the food of the Eastern Mediterranean, but also borders, migration and the human connections we make through food. We spoke to her about the project.

Your previous books have focused on recipes and stories from one particular country, Iran and then Palestine. What made you take a different approach for this book?

Yasmin: I focussed on a region for this book in order to explore the concept of borders - both their intrinsically arbitrary nature and their fluidity. The borders of the Eastern Mediterranean have been as contested as they've been changeable over several thousand years and in many ways the area is a microcosm of an issue faced all over the world. Namely, how in the 21st century do we deal with the fact that humans have always needed to move and always will move? And how can we update our narrative and our concepts of borders, states and identity so that people can live, and move, in peace and with dignity?

Refugees don’t often get a starring role in food writing.

Why was it important for you that they did in Ripe Figs? From migrants risking their lives to cross the Channel, to Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban, refugees continue to grow in numbers in our economically divided world. I wanted to give a voice to those moving and share the stories of the incredible volunteer initiatives that are stepping in to support them. Food is such a powerful lens for exploring social issues like this, I think, as it connects us through the act of breaking bread but it also enables us to learn about a culture.

When you learn about a cuisine from a particular place, you don't just learn about a set of ingredients, you learn about its history, economy, climate, agriculture, gender relations and trade. I like to take my readers on a journey, from the kitchen table to the world around them and hope the book inspires both debate and discussion, alongside delicious meals.

Find out more at yasminkhanstories.com

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1. Yasmin’s Cypriot potato salad. Ninety-Nine readers can find this recipe for free at globaljustice.org.

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2. Sislo prepares food in the One Happy Family community kitchen on Lesvos, which feeds hundreds of refugees every day. 3. "Food is the simplest way for people to communicate" says Nadina Christopoulou, co-founder of Melissa, a women’s refugee organisation and community centre in Athens. 4. Graffiti in Cyprus’ divided capital, Nicosia. 5. In Northern Cyprus, Yasmin makes olive bread with Nahide Köşkeroğlu (left) and her granddaughter Çizge Yalkın (centre), whose family were displaced by the civil war and division of the island in 1974. Despite a shared food culture and reconciliation initiatives, nationalists on both sides continue to stoke hostility.

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YASMIN KHAN RIPE FIGS

Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean