This year, to celebrate World Food Day, Cookpad started a conversation about why we as a community and individuals #ChooseToCook. Our mission at Cookpad is simple, to make everyday cooking fun and we wanted to celebrate those who do just that, you! To get everyone engaged we set a cooking challenge, held office events, spoke to our colleagues and community and asked the question, why do you #ChooseToCook?
With over 60 recipes entered to the #ChooseToCook challenge from 31 different cooks, we wanted to say THANK YOU and share some of the beautiful stories, recipes and fun that was created for World Food Day 2022.
Many cooks sent us photos and stories from their kitchen, meet home cook Rekha Bapodra....
'I #ChooseToCook because cooking is my passion' shared Rekha. 'My parents had a sweetmart in Uganda when I was 1 month old, so I have been brought up in a cooking environment. My passion started at the age of 13 when I went to India and since then I've never looked back. I like to learn new dishes and share them as well, so others can learn. Home cooking is best as you can make it the way you want, it’s freshly made with no additives. I cook everyday freshly. There is not one day a fresh meal is not cooked in my house. It’s healthy and tasty, so home cooking is best.'
Bianca Mwale entered her recipe for Banana and peanut butter bread to the #ChooseToCook cooking challenge along with the reason she chooses to cook.
'I #ChooseToCook because there’s no bad conversation with food present. When I cook I expect feedback in the form of smiles, compliments about how great it tastes, guesses about what I might have put in it or even plates being licked. I’m simply a cook for the people.'
In the office we created a week of events, holding workshops and shared lunches based on the resons why different team members said they chose to cook. From a fridge-raid, no-waste lunchtime cooking challenge where teams got together and created recipes from a mystery bag of leftovers, to a dosa making workshop and a 'Know your squash' seasonality workshop, we had themed lunches such as 'Taste of home' and 'Taste the season' with everyone sharing their knowledge and passion!
We took photos of our colleagues, too and created posters to put around the office with the stories behind why they #ChooseToCook, meet Jesse and Kana from the Cookpad office....
Home cook Kenneth shared the story of how his cooking passion started at school...'I've always cooked from when I was at school' shared Kenneth. 'In secondary school when it came to choose what subjects I wanted to do in my last two years, one subject was home economics, I was the first boy to choose this in the school's history, then about half a dozen of my mates followed my lead'.
Lubna's Kitchen has over 400 recipes on Cookpad, she shared her recipe for Lamb shanks kunna in the #ChooseToCook cooking challenge and said 'I #ChooseToCook because I love learning about different cultures cuisines inspiring me to create my own delicious fusion of foods from all around the world and it’s my favourite hobby!'
Iskan, another passionate home cook shared, ‘I have a few reasons why I #ChooseToCook, first I want to save money, when you cook you are able to feed 3 people with the same amount of money you can spend on a takeaway for 1 portion, also because I want to make sure that my family get the nutrition they need with the food I cook. Second, I love to explore, I like to try new recipes, use new ingredients and learn new techniques, from there I feel I can learn different cultures from my very own kitchen’.
And Foodiegeektrish said it was different countries cuisine that inspired her 'I #ChooseToCook because I’ve not had the chance to travel, so I find this is the best way to understand a country and its culture, what better way is there to share stories than with the language of food.’
We loved seeing your recipes, reading your stories and sharing the reasons we all #ChooseToCook. Keep sharing, Cooksnapping and creating, spread the word through food and community about the benefits and joy of cooking and continue to make everyday cooking FUN! THANK YOU!