introducing the project: kitchen for three
“Food was not so much a common ground on which people declared themselves alike; rather, it provided a visceral record of a shared history of meeting and interaction across cultural and social boundaries.” -Donna Gabaccia
kitchen for three is a project that I started in january of 2012 in collaboration with la cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen in san francisco’s mission district. in particular, i wanted to highlight the stories of three women who are either current or past participants in the incubator program, and talk with them about the ways in which their lives have been influenced by their shared affiliation at the organization. the stories of chiefo chukwudebe, azalina eusope, and cristina arantes, written here, indicate how a the simultaneous emphasis on individual cultural heritage and shared participation at the organization provide the foundation for a strong narrative and
to share the stories of three women: chiefo chukwudebe, azalina eusope, and cristina arantes“Kitchen for Three” is a platform for the stories of three women who either are current participants, or have participated in the culinary incubator program at La Cocina. The intent behind this project is to provide a holistic glimpse into the lives of Azalina Eusope, Chiefo Chukwudebe, and Cristina Arantes. While each woman undoubtedly has a unique story to tell, I set about this project interested in examining whether, despite their differences, these three women were linked in some way through their shared involvement at La Cocina. These women had found their way to the organization by different means, from a wide variety of backgrounds—but each was able to find a degree of their identity through their participation with the organization.
My fieldwork and observation took place during two non-consecutive stretches of time in 2011 and 2012. The first was a fifteen-week internship at La Cocina, and the second, an eight-week period for which I returned to San Francisco with the purpose of spending more time with Azalina, Chiefo and Cristina. My methodology was inspired largely by Carole Counihan’s “food centered life histories.” In Around the Tuscan Table (2004) Counihan suggests that the memories and experiences surrounding food “production, preservation, preparation, consumption, and exchange” were in fact indicative of individual perceptions of twentieth-century Florentine food and culture (Counihan, 2004, 2). By sorting her interview content into broader themes, Counihan was able to weave these perceptions together into a larger narrative. Although my work at La Cocina is on a much smaller scale—both fewer subjects and shorter period of time—I applied Counihan’s technique of sorting field notes and interview transcriptions into broader themes, in the hope that these conclusions would provide a more holistic glimpse into these women’s lives. I was first introduced to Azalina, Chiefo, and Cristina because of their affiliation with La Cocina, and typically, our conversations revolved around food; but each woman used food as a vehicle to talk about many other aspects of their lives.
The purpose of this project, then, is to share these three narratives. The themes can be categorized on two basic levels: the personal, and the communal. First, I’ll explain the communal, which, when it comes to examining an organization like La Cocina, may initially seem more intuitive. After all, the “La Cocina community” is the most obvious factor that links these three women together. However, I realized that the communal realm also represents both the physical and theoretical space of La Cocina as an organization, as well as the collective identity that the organization provides to its’ participants. But this body of individuals that are collectively identified as La Cocina participants encompasses a lot of diversity, therefore linking it to the importance of analysis on the personal level. The personal realm includes these women’s lives at home, and the promotion of their business apart from the incubator organization. Put together, the communal and personal realms provide a better idea of what life is like for Azalina, Chiefo, and Cristina. What I found was that their identity was not taken only from their participation at La Cocina, but was strongly rooted in their ability to self-identify as female, immigrant food entrepreneurs in San Francisco. Learning to explain this identity, what Counihan may describe as the weaving of their narratives, is what links all of these areas of their story together.
In the opening pages of Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States (1984), editors Brown and Mussell tell the story of a young boy on his first train ride. At the moment his ticket is punched by the conductor, the train begins to roll out of the station, thus leading the boy to believe that the punch of the ticket must have set the train in motion. At the end of the illustration, the authors suggest “you must be careful with cause and meaning when you interpret the part to the whole” (Brown and Mussell, 1984, 3). In the process of collecting information, making observations, conducting and transcribing interviews, and organizing the content for this project, I tried to keep Brown and Mussells’ advice in mind. The presentation of these three narratives is not intended to be a comprehensive report on La Cocina as an incubator organization. Instead, the pieces of their stories begins to indicate how this non-profit has gradually shifted to meet the needs of a wide variety of program participants since it first opened its’ doors.
La Cocina has been operating in the Mission District of San Francisco since 2005. Although in 2012 they continue to operate in that original space, many of the intricacies of the incubator program have evolved over the course of the past seven years. Stated on the organization’s website, the primary goal and mission of the incubator is to “cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market and capital opportunities” (website content, 2012). This work is directed toward women from communities of color and immigrant communities from around the Bay Area, in the hope that these entrepreneurs will be able to achieve economic self-sufficiency through the support from fellow participants and staff of the incubator program.
My own work with La Cocina during the summer of 2011 was a considerable source of inspiration for this project. For three months, I was a policy intern and “mobile foods wizard” at the organization. The majority of my time there was spent preparing for La Cocina’s Second Annual National Street Food Conference that would be held on August twenty-first and twenty-second of that year. During those weeks of preparation, I gained an immense appreciation for the tireless dedication of all of the employees and volunteers (including 300 to 400 the day of the Street Food Festival alone) that were drawn to 2148 Folsom St. Above all of that, La Cocina is defined by the women who work, day-in and day-out in the kitchen; prepping tamales to sell in Justin Hermann Plaza, pickling blueberries for a “signature” curry-bomb sandwich sold at Fort Mason Off the Grid, and frying scotch eggs for a cooking class. I left La Cocina to return to school in September 2011, deeply impressed by these individuals.
Reflecting on these experiences, I could not help but recognize the truth in Ethnic and Regional Foodways (1994) that in culinary history, written record has often excluded a cultural context for ethnic cuisine. The lack of voice given to the ‘other,’ women and minority groups, is a theme that can be traced across numerous cultures, in multiple disciplines. As the focal point for the organization, I felt that these women’s stories needed to be shared. For that reason, the material in the following sections is presented in a way that will give a voice to these female entrepreneurs.
I chose these three women because of the connection that I had established with them during my internship the previous summer. Since their businesses were three that I was already familiar with, I felt as though the processes of observation and interviewing would be more comfortable for my subjects. It also happened that Cristina, Azalina, and Chiefo represented different types of cuisine, had different goals for their businesses, and had different responsibilities at home. For one, Azalina is from Penang, Malaysia; and few people in the Bay Area are familiar with the food of her tribe, the Mamak. She is also a single mother of two. Chiefo, while also a single mother, was born in Asaba, a part of the Bendel State in Nigeria. Even in context of San Francisco, Nigerian cuisine remains relatively unfamiliar, or exotic, so Chiefo has chosen to present her food with as little manipulation from its’ traditional method of preparation as possible as to give San Franciscans her taste of Nigeria. Finally, Cristina’s packaged cookies and confections undoubtedly have been influenced by her Brazilian heritage, but just as much so by her obsession with “American treats.” As a graduate of La Cocina, Cristina’s perspective on the organization is unique from the other two women. She has established her business in a neighborhood and office space quite different from La Cocina and the Mission, and although the La Cocina community remains a part of her life, her day-to-day operation is not so directly connected to the incubator organization in the way they still are for Azalina or Chiefo.
The remainder of the site is formatted to highlight the moments of distinction and commonality between Azalina, Chiefo, and Cristina—keeping in mind both the personal and communal level. The format is also intended to allow each woman to speak in her own voice, and to demonstrate how the narrative is not only influenced by joint involvement at La Cocina, but by their past, and lives in San Francisco as immigrant entrepreneurs as well. I have divided the remainder of my analysis into four sections: collective identity, which focuses on their understanding of La Cocina; culinary tourism, highlighting the ways in which both food, individual, and ethnic ‘other’ are “exoticized”; creating a story, which describes the process of learning how to share their experiences with their customer; and conceptualizing a space, which contrasts the different stages of involvement with the incubator organization. To learn more about Azalina Eusope, Cristina Arantes, or Chiefo Chukwudebe, just click on their corresponding pages.
kitchenforthree.wordpress.com 
