Announcing Culinary Chronicling with Rushina MG - The Monsoon 2022 Edition

Announcing the all-new edition of the very popular Culinary Chronicling Course by RushinaMG!

Have you always wanted to write or document content around food? Perhaps to record family recipes, create a food memoir, or collate the culinary culture of your community or region? Or perhaps you wish to deep dive into an aspect of food research, such as a forgotten ingredient, food history exploration, trend watching, or documenting culinary traditions. Maybe you would like to start a food-themed blog, video channel or podcast? The options are endless, but if the above resonates at any level, do read on, because this program is for you! 

Over almost two decades of my career in food, I’ve worked with food in myriad ways. From writing countless blog posts and articles, to publishing several books (mine and others), editing publications (digital and print), to doing R&D for food TV, web series, and more. I’ve also done a fair amount of food styling, food illustrations (Foodles by RMG), curated a bunch of workshops, classes, opened and shut down a business (APB Cook Studio), created brands, and worked with a gamut of individuals and brands, start-ups and large corporations. I have also created some seriously fantastic IP's (The Kellogg Flavour Conference, and the Godrej Food Trends Report to name a couple) I am very proud of. 

Recognised for Chronicling at the
 IFBA awards by FBAI.

Along the way, in this absolutely fabulous journey, I've explored many avenues and worn many labels (food blogger, food writer, food illustrator, and more). And navigated the evolution of platforms, mediums, and forms for food content communication that, forced content creators like me to keep reinventing ourselves. I realised that many of us were chafing at labels that were unable to adequately describe the work we were doing that had grown to include many functions. It was in 2017 that we coined the term Culinary Chronicler’ at A Perfect Bite Consulting, and conceptualized the idea of a more encompassing space to accommodate the multi-disciplinary functions that culinary content creation was evolving into. In 2018 we hosted the first ever Culinary Chroniclers Conclave. I must share that it has been gratifying to observe how much the label Culinary Chronicler has resonated in the last two years! In my work on the Spice Chronicles, Godrej Food Trends Report 2022 and other research projects, I see an increasing tribe of food professionals adapting the label to describe themselves.

The pandemic threw a spanner in the works, but it also forced me to pivot with the concept of Chronicling. With food becoming prime focus during the time I observed a groundswell of interest in documenting all things culinary, while formats and consumption patterns were also rapidly evolving. And I was inspired to create, formalise and conduct the first round of ‘Culinary Chronicling with RushinaMG,’ a course in which I distilled almost 20 years of experience in creating food content across varied verticals into a program designed to equip culinary content creators with the foundation to be able to create well-crafted content with agility across mediums and platforms.

In the wake of the pandemic, mediums, formats and platforms for food content continue to evolve and we must evolve to stay abreast. Keeping all of this in mind I am happy to share that this year The Culinary Chronicling Course with MG is bigger and better than ever! 

What is Culinary Chronicling and who are Culinary Chroniclers?

All stars at the first Culinary Chroniclers Conclave

Culinary Chronicling is essentially the recording of food, through varied mediums. And by that definition, anyone who is documenting or archiving food in any aspect through writing, illustration, art, craft, photography, voice, film, social media, or any combination of those, is a Culinary Chronicler. 

Why you should sign up.

If you want to research and document food and cuisine in order to create high-quality food content, this course is for you. Your content or chronicles can manifest as a blog, articles, books, podcasts, videos, and more. Learn how to conceptualize, organize, research, document, and present your chronicling project with keen attention to your target audience and your voice as a chronicler. 

Details On The Course

The 2022 course is bigger, wider, deeper, and better! Efficiently structured into an accelerated 6-week online format, it packs in more into 16 sessions (over 35 hours) of rich curriculum-based lectures and interactions, than ever before. And is designed to equip aspiring Culinary Chroniclers with the knowledge, skills, tools, and thought processes they would need to create well-crafted, high-quality food content for varied mediums (written, illustrated, audio and visual) and formats (online, print, audio, video and social media). This year the course includes all new modules on the basics of creating content for food styling, photography, podcasting, and video. Through the course participants will explore the genre of Culinary Chronicling, learn the nuances of content creation and navigating different mediums, information visualization, project management, building their individual brand, showcasing their work on varied media platforms, and more.

An Overview Of The Curriculum  

In addition to bi-weekly lectures by accomplished experts in the Culinary Chronicling space, the course is packed with topics that will excite thinking through mind-mapping and other exercises, lots of reading, stimulating conversations and a regular cycle of assignments and reviews. 

• An Introduction to Culinary Chronicling

• The Journey and Structure of Chronicles

• Developing Ideas and Concepts 

• Nuances of Culinary Research and Documentation 

• Food Writing, Recipe Documentation and Development

• Information Visualization and Supporting Content

• Food Illustration and comics

• Food styling and Photography 

• Creating Your Brand and Developing Your Proposition 

• Pitching and Publishing 

• Introduction to content creation for Podcasting and Video

A detailed curriculum will be shared on confirmation of acceptance. 

Instructors and Expert Guests

While the course is created by me and I lead many of the sessions, I believe that learning from experts who have successfully built careers in specific verticals is invaluable for aspiring Culinary Chroniclers. With this in mind, the course also incorporates lectures and interactive sessions with experts from different streams of chronicling who will impart knowledge, skills, and, insights from their own rich experiences. Our guest Instructors this year include (From Top Left)

- Shivani Unakar, Independent Researcher and Writer will conduct a session on Developing Ideas and Concepts - Dr. Mohsina Mukadam, Culinary Historian, will conduct a session on Nuances of Culinary Research. - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu, Independent Journalist and Food Writer - will conduct a workshop on Technical Writing on Food. - Abhijeet Kini, Illustrator, animator, award winning indie comics creator - Will conduct a session on How to Create a Food Comic. - Alok Verma, Food Stylist and Photographer - will conduct a session on basics of Food Styling and Photography. - Roxanne Bamboat aka The Tiny Taster, Blogger, Podcaster (Beyond Butter Chicken) - will conduct a workshop on An Introduction to Creating Content for Podcasts - Nehal Karkera, Former Chef & Food Content Creator - An Introduction to Creating Content for Video. Chandra Shekhar Ghildiyal, Chief Product Designer, Tata Class Edge wil conduct a session on Information Visualisation and Supporting Content. Rushina MG, Curator will conduct sessions on; The Journey and Structure of Chronicles, Research and Documentation, Recipe Documentation and Development, Introduction to Food Illustration, Creating your Brand, Developing your proposition.

Application and Registration Process

We believe that Culinary Chroniclers are individuals with a passion to discover and document food, cuisine, and culinary traditions. However they must also meet a certain criterion of mindset, writing, listening and observational skills, and interest for everyone to benefit from the course. To this goal, this year we have introduced a 2 step process of application and registration. 

Aspiring applicants would be required to fill out an application form so my team and I can assess if they fit the criteria. On acceptance, you will be intimated with further details on registration and payment. 

Form Link - If you feel you want to explore being a Culinary Chronicler, then please fill this form

Essential Information

Dates - 20 August - 08 October 2022  Due to many requests we have rescheduled to start after Ganesh Chaturthi. The final start date is 03 Sep to 6 Oct with the finale session in mid Oct.

Format and Scheduling - Online (16 Sessions - Regular sessions will take place twice-weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Expert sessions will take place on weekends). The final schedule with dates will be shared with participants accepted into course, in advance of commencement. 

Batches -  We have a batch size of 10 (minimum) - 25 (maximum) participants per batch. There will be two batches to pick from. While all session recordings will be shared throughout the duration, it will be important for participants to keep pace with the course and complete assignments and submissions in a timely manner and I would like to emphasize that attendance is compulsory for optimal performance.

- Morning [10:30-12:30 IST] 

- Evening [6:30-8:30 IST] 

Course Fee - Rs.15000 (payable in advance on acceptance)

Tools and Resources: Participants of the course get access to:

Recommended reading lists

Templates and Guides

Skill-building tools

Access to a repository of conversations with chroniclers

Certificate of Participation and Culinary Chroniclers Badge on completion

Note: Further details on the course, the final schedule and payment process will be shared with participants accepted into the course via Whatsapp and email. For any doubts or questions please write to bookings@apbcookstudio.com.

#FoodBizInFocus - White Mountain Collectives, Uttarakhand

I am excited to kick off my all new Food Business in Focus series with an article on White Mountain Collectives. One, because it features Janhavi Prasada, who in addition to being one amazing person is also one of my oldest friends. And two, because White Mountain Collectives, the Food business we are exploring today, was inspired by Haldi, or Turmeric, the "Golden Spice'' that has been valued in Indian culinary culture for millennia before it became the global golden child it is today! (You might remember the live I did with Jahnavi on Turmeric farming for Spice Chronicles with RMG. )

A published author, writer, photographer, Janhavi has successfully nurtured many projects and brands onto successful paths over the years. From writing a graphic novel, to nurturing the family heritage property Abbotsford into one of the most iconic properties in Nainital, and more, I have watched Janhavi’s passion and achievements with no small measure of both pride and awe over the years. So I was extremely excited when she launched White Mountain Collectives with her partner Anmol Gupta. An initiative to reintroduce spices and inculcate awareness of their origins and provenance.

With strong roots in Nainital, Janhavi found the windswept mountains where Abbotsford is located, to become increasingly attractive to her while she explored her writing and culinary projects. On one of her customary long walks in the surrounding woods, she happened upon a community of farmers that raised livestock and farmed small plots of land. And observed that each farmer dedicated a patch of their farms to growing ginger or turmeric. It brought home to her how little she knew of the origins of these indigenous spices she had been consuming all her life! Inspired, she was moved to embark on another project, build a living repository of spices! After all Uttarakhand offered so much! Appropriately White Mountain Collectives picked turmeric as their flagship spice. 

RMG: Tell us. What was the inspiration behind White Mountain Collectives?

JP: The brand is only two years old. My cofounder, Anmol Gupta, and I chose the name White Mountain Collectives because we loved the way it felt and sounded. We were clear it had to be something with mountains in it!

We began with creating avenues. Contacting farmer friends I knew who were growing turmeric. Asking them to give us a chance, as an experiment based on my past rapport with them (which was crucial). Over time we built and strengthened relationships. Trying to grow different Turmeric varietals, we started with Kumaoni and Lakadong turmeric. Today we have a plot of 2 hectares, and we're experimenting with new turmeric types, with Pragathi being our most recent trial. 

RMG: Tell us how you decided the product portfolio and how you have nurtured it? 

JP: So, turmeric as a product or a new brand would be difficult to sustain by itself in a fiercely competitive industry. But turmeric really did take prime focus for our brand, due to the pandemic. Everyone was looking to boost immunity and began to consume turmeric. While we began experimenting with growing Kumaoni and Lakadong turmeric we simultaneously explored possibilities of creating more usage scenarios; including creams, soaps, gin, and more. That’s when our Hot chocolate with Turmeric entered the picture.. Of course, I was always on a mission to discover the next big flavour. Which led to the addition of our Vanilla Frappe and more. 

RMG: So where is White Mountain Collectives Product Portfolio headed from here? What else do you plan to add to your product portfolio?

JP: I’m glad that chocolate came our way. Our hot chocolate was well received. I recognised that the chocolate sector has potential to become the next big thing. And as a brand our focus has progressed from turmeric to cacao plantation. I have been working with farmers down south. And from turmeric, we're branching out into chocolate. We just launched Hot Chocolate with Kashmiri Chillies and another with Sri Lankan Cinnamon. We are also looking at launching a Cacao Tea! 

RMG: With a beautiful boutique property and Turmeric farm, do you plan to bring it all together into a turmeric experience at some point?

JP: Yes, I'd love to do that! All of this is on our minds and in our heads. I'd love to have a small window over in one corner, where I can show people how things are done.  Invite people to come to our harvests, volunteer, and engage with our farmers. At the end of the day, experience is everything! Especially in the hospitality industry where it adds to the brand value. And it would be wonderful for people to know where crops come from and what it takes to grow them! 

That in a sense was the catalyst of the entire WMC ethos. I remember the first time I went to the farm to sow turmeric. I was like ‘sab log shuru karte he’ (let’s all start). And one of the lady farmers says Chalo tum bhi Kudali uthalo jaldi se (Come, you also quickly pick up the Kudali-a tool used for farming). So I picked up the kudali and started digging. And in literally 5 mins I was sweating! I couldn't sit on my haunches for more than 2 mins. But I did it, I dug about 3-4 rows, then took the rhizomes in my hand, and placed them in the rows. 

It was a very sacred act for me. It ignited a deep feeling of gratitude towards farmers and how much hard work, sweat and toil they put in everyday! And deep feelings, of thanking the Earth, for what it does, the miracle that is going to happen after that moment when you put the rhizomes in the soil. It was quite mind blowing, so yeah it is certainly an experience I would love for others to get a taste of!

RMG: That sounds absolutely amazing! So Janhavi, I am curious what a typical field day is like for you. Take us through your activities.

JP: It takes me about 1 ½  hours to drive from Nainital to Chaafi, where the fields are. I love the drive because it spans beautiful terrain, with a river that runs beneath our fields. My route comes to a crossroad after which there is a lot of off-roading onto kaccha roads, past small hamlets dotted with beautiful pahadi homes. This is almost the vegetable bowl of the region, so it's very lush and green. Once I get to the top of the road, on the mountain, I park my car and then we have to walk about 50-60 meters down-hill, along a steep, winding path hauling equipment, fertilisers, seed sacks, and other supplies. Depending on what season you choose your equipment. If you're just weeding then you take your kudalis. We arrive, to where the farmers are waiting, fortify ourselves with tea and continue down to the khet to get to work. The farmers are so dexterous with their hands, they know exactly what to do! Overall it is a bit of a logistical challenge, but in the mountains, everyone does it. And maybe that's part of the allure! 

RMG: I must say I am fascinated, how does it feel to work with a group of women farmers?

JP: What happens when a group of women get together? Be it in a city or in a village it’s the same thing! The heart of women never changes. There’s lots of laughter, a lot of joking and merriment. 

But I’ve also attended their self-help group meetings. These are the women of the soil. And there’s so much to learn from them. The men just stand around with poker faces and listen to what the women are saying but will not extend a helping hand at all. And I will tell you, I don’t know what is the case in other states but in Uttarakhand, statistics show that it is the women who are the key bread earners on the land. And these amazing women, will also be all dressed up in their sarees, teekas, celebrate all festivals, and mark all traditions- they keep them all alive! 

I must share here though, one big issue that concerns us is that the next generation of these farmer communities (the children) do not want to continue the family farming traditions. And you can’t criticize them for this because regulations and public awareness initiatives need to be organized by the Government to raise the profile of farming to be equal to that of joining the military or becoming a doctor. Otherwise the problems that will arise are legion. 

But I think of these ladies as Janes of the jungle - not the Tarzans. But real Janes! They’ll climb any tree to pick fruit or lunge for a pumpkin hanging from a tree. And they are so generous! At the end of the day, they will load us up with fresh tomatoes, karelas, whatever is growing in their gardens, will be collected in their saree pallus and deposited before us with instructions - "chalo ye aapke liye hai aur ab aap isko ghar le jao acchese khana" (this is for you, carry it home and eat well)! 

It was absolutely riveting to hear about Jahnavi's journey with White Mountain collectives. Her vision, passion and determination are so inspiring! In conclusion here are three top things I admire about White Mountain Collectives: 

The Soul of the Brand. So much heart has been put into every stage of its evolution. It takes heart to pick something like turmeric as a flagship product and then stick with one's vision. 

The investment is learning and innovation. That Janhavi is constantly 2 steps ahead with ideas and innovations exhibits agility and creativity, something small businesses need to grow, both expansively and deeply.

The thoughtful packaging. Living up to the adage wearing ones heart on ones sleeve, the design incorporates Uttarakhand's Aipan Art portraying proud women farmers and lends the products and brand unforgettable identity. 

Read more about White Mountain Collectives and shop for their products.

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~ With inputs from Himani Sona, pictures courtesy - White Mountain Collectives

Looking forward to a spicy November 2021!

2021 has been all about learning, engaging and exploring. And as we approach the end of the year I have been reflecting on all the wonderful conversations and people I got to meet and learn from this year, like the culinary chroniclers both established and aspiring, various small business owners who have been doing exciting work, and of course all the wonderful guests on Spice Chronicles with RMG! On that last note, November is packed with all things Spice! Just what the chilly weather here in Doon calls for!

A New Segment on this blog - November will see a new segment introduced on this blog called #FoodBizInFocus. The last two years have caused the whole food industry to reorganise itself. And while it is still picking itself up, one area that has seen massive movement and innovation has been food entrepreneurship through small businesses. And thanks to the mentoring session I did in May as well as SpiceChronicles I have had a chance to interact, discover and work with a number of start-ups and small businesses, doing seriously cool things. As someone who consults with small businesses, supporting small business owners is extremely important to me, and via this section I hope to share with you some inspiring stories of great brands and fabulous products. Look forward to our first story about White Mountain Collectives run by one of my oldest friends and sources of inspiration, Janhavi Prasada, early next week.

Talking about #SpiceChronicleswithRMG and all that I got to learn because of this project (technology included!). I started this project to explore the Indian sense of spice. This month we will embark on the last series exploring the North East. And considering over 125+ episodes recorded, the lineup of awe inspiring speakers and the community we have built on the way, I think it is time to #LookBack at the spice infused journey I have travelled, refreshing memories! For those who joined us midway through the journey or want to revisit past episodes, click here to read all about the project, which will further lead you to the recorded IGTV lives.

Announcing FINEST CULINARY WORKSHOPS with RMG. You might have read about my recent association with Finest Journeys of India. More on that soon, but let me tell you about something else I have cooked up with the founder of Finest and my long-time friend, Savio. All the online study and education we embarked on with food in the last year, brought the realization that online workshops allow us to transcend geographical borders to go anywhere, explore anything. And I believe this will continue to thrive even as borders reopen. Savio and I are excited to present a new kind of travel and discovery with carefully curated workshops. Our aim is to transport you to the far reaches of our country and bring fascinating morsels of our culinary heritage right to your screen! Join FINEST CULINARY WORKSHOPS to meet, learn from and cook with subject matter experts like spice growers, food producers, chefs and home cooks right in your own home and get a window into the finest spice, ingredients and delicacies from various parts of India! These workshops will be multi-sensory experiences. On signing up, each participant will also receive tasting kits containing the ingredients in focus so that you can recreate the sensory experience in your own home!

And for our first Finest Culinary Workshop, we are starting with Saffron!

Zafran, Kesar, Saffron… Say the name and one is instantly transported! It is not a mere spice, it has the power to transform any dish into a thing of indulgence. In Indian cuisine saffron is an emotion! No other ingredient can replicate that precise red-gold color, luxuriously heady fragrance and that ineffable flavour. Sweet smelling, earthy and instantly recognizable! As cliched as I may sound, you know Saffron when you taste it. And with strands that are thicker and more fragrant than any other, Kashmiri Saffron is the sweetest smelling, most precious of all Saffron in the world. Something that I have come to appreciate thanks to Afan Basu of the Basu Kesar company who I connect with through my explorations with the Spice Chronicles. Until I connected with him, I never thought of Saffron beyond that precious little box we bought from a store. But after hearing about the journey of Saffron, I understand why my Dadi kept her Kesar under lock and key and why my Bua carried a dibbi in her batua throughout my cousin's wedding feast preparations!

So without further ado, let me invite you to be part of an exclusive chance to experience the Saffron Harvest journey from the Saffron fields of Pampore in Kashmir straight to your plate! Register for the Saffron Harvest Workshop for a deep dive into the Farm to plate journey of this legendary spice with Afan Basu, scion of the Basu Kesar Family and yours truly! Workshop Date: 19 Dec 2021. For more information, write to ops@finest.co.in.

Hope you enjoy these delicious offerings we're lining up for you! Watch this space we have workshops like never before coming featuring chillies, salts and more!

Happy Festive season! 

Rushina

Rangoon Na Vaal Ni Daal for the #Daalicious series

Dal the ingredients and Dal the dish are ubiquitous to India

Dal presents itself in various avatars on the plate throughout India. But dal consumption varies as you travel around India based on local availability, season, cuisine, types of dal consumed, form the dals take and cooking techniques applied. The use of Dals (as an ingredient) and the concept of Dal (the dish) is rooted in the beginnings of Indian cuisine and evolved with Indian cuisine as it spread and diversified, adapting to locally available ingredients. Culinary exchanges through travel and trade expanded the repertoire of dals we eat. Some are indigenous, others came through culinary exchange, some are used across the country others are local to a specific cuisine. One dal that is very particular to the Gujarati cuisine I grew up eating was Rangoon Na Vaal Ni Dal.

Rangoon Na Vaal Ni Dal is one of the rarest dals I have seen in the Indian repertoire in all my chronicling of dals in the last few years. I’ve only seen it cooked in Gujarati cuisine on special occasions. And sometimes in the Mango season. The large, buttery beans slow-cooked in a typical Gujarati flavour profile with jaggery, imli, chilli powder and spicy ajwain to impart a unique balance of sweet-sour tang to this dish. I can eat bowls of it just by itself! 

I have always been fascinated by this Dal for two other reasons! Its appearance - the beans are huge! (And get bigger on cooking!!) And for its name 'Rangoon Na Vaal' which in fact, gives us insight into its origins. Rangoon Na Vaal came to India during the Columbian Exchange — the great transfer of ingredients between the Americas and the Old World. These legumes first travelled from the Americas eastward to Europe and Africa, and then westward to the Philippines, larger South East Asia and Burma (then known as Rangoon) sometime in the 16th Century. They became popular with the indentured labour of Indian origin, particularly Gujaratis. And it is these folks that carried them back home to India with them. So ingrained was it in Burma that it arrived in India as Rangoon Na Vaal. 

Rangoon Na Vaal according to the great WWW are also known as Butter Beans, Broad or Field beans and Lima beans, but in my experience, these beans are all slightly different. I had a chance to compare an African variant I picked up in Kenya and then some variants from this family from Australia. Besides this dal, these beautiful Vaal beans are lovely in soups, stews and salads and make a fabulous Hummus. 

 

Recipe for Rangoon Na Vaal ni Dal 

Time: 30 mins plus overnight | Makes 4 servings

Like other legumes, these beans take time to cook and are considered heavy, which is why it is a common practice to soak these seeds well and pressure cooked thoroughly, without overcooking. The heeng and ajwain are extremely important for the digestibility of this Dal. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups Rangoon Na Vaal (broad field beans)
• Water to soak + 6 cups water for cooking 
• 1/4 tsp Soda bi-carb
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 3-4 Kokum 
• 3-4 Boria Marcha (round chillies) 
• 1/4 tsp Ajwain (Carom seeds)
• 1/4 tsp Heeng (Asafoetida)
• 1/2 tsp Chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp Haldi (Turmeric) powder
• 1-2 tbsp Gur (Jaggery), grated 
• 1-2 tsp Imli (Tamarind) pulp, optional
• Salt to taste

Method 

1. Wash the Vaal, then soak with the soda bi-carb and 8 cups of water for 8 to 10 hours or overnight.
2. Drain, transfer to a pressure cooker, add 6 cups water and pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles or till the dal is cooked. Switch off the flame, leave the cooker aside and allow the steam to escape on its own. When pressure is completely released, open the lid and keep it aside.
3. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the kokum, heeng, ajwain, and boria marcha and let it all splutter. Add the chilli powder and turmeric powder and sauté on a medium flame for a few seconds. 
4. Add the cooked Vaal, ½ cup of the cooking water, jaggery, tamarind pulp and salt, mix well and cook on a medium flame for 5 to 7 minutes, while stirring occasionally. Use the remaining cooking water to adjust consistency as you like depending on whether you are eating it with rotis or rice. Serve hot. It is also classically served with aam ras and bapadi rotli. 

Rangoon Na Vaal ni Daal for the #Daalicious series - exploring India one dal at a time. 

Culinary Chronicling with RushinaMG - A Comprehensive Course

Announcing the first-ever Culinary Chronicling by RushinaMG - A Comprehensive Course

Have you always wanted to document or publish content around food? Perhaps document family recipes, or collate your regional or community culinary culture? Or perhaps you would like to deep dive into ingredient forward research, food history exploration and documentation, put together a personal food-related memoir, or something similar? If any of the above resonates, read on, because this is the program for you!

I have spent over two decades of my career, telling stories about food in myriad ways. I've written countless articles, published a blog or two and several books (mine and others), been the curating editor on a couple of food websites, done R&D for TV shows, podcasts, web series, and more. Done a whole lot of food styling, created my signature style of food illustrations (Foodles by RMG) curated food events, created brands and some seriously good IP's (the Godrej Food Trends Report, the Kellogg Flavour Conference).

And somewhere along this absolutely fabulous journey that I have been lucky to travel on, I learned that terms like a food blogger, food writer or food illustrator, are momentary labels, fleeting in their relevance. Because communicating about food has not only grown explosively in the last decade, but it is constantly evolving. As newer and newer mediums and formats to talk about food evolve, we must evolve in our roles. Personally, I also found I needed a more encompassing term to describe the scope of my work. And so, a few years ago, with the help of my husband, we coined the title Culinary Chronicler. 

What is Culinary Chronicling?

What are we eating? How are we eating? Why we are eating as we do? How is food made? Where are we eating? Who makes our food? Who eats our food? Chronicles about food often address questions like these. Culinary chronicling is essentially a way of sharing food with others, through varied mediums. And any of us that are archiving or documenting food in any aspect through writing, illustration,  art, craft, literature and journalism, film and media, styling and photography are Culinary Chroniclers.  Read more about what makes a culinary chronicler here.

What is the Culinary Chronicling Course with RushinaMG all about? 

Over the last year, it has become more even apparent to me that the ways and means for us to research, document, communicate, publish and tell stories are evolving rapidly, with new avenues opening up every day. This is a fantastic time for those of us who want to chronicle food! This course, a distillation of 20 years of my experience in chronicling and educating,  is aimed to help you make the most of it and achieve your chronicling goals!

If you want to research and document food and cuisine in order to create high-quality food content, this course is for you! Your food content or chronicles can manifest as a blog, articles, books, podcasts, videos and more. 

Spread of 8 weeks, it is packed with 12 online sessions, which include workshops, interactions with prominent Culinary Chroniclers from varied disciplines, assignments, peer reviews and more. There will be mind-mapping exercises, plenty of reading, and stimulating conversations. At the end of the 8 weeks, each Chronicler (you!) will have conceptualized, developed and be well entrenched into creating their specific culinary chronicling project with workable timelines, deadlines and goals.

Curriculum:

The program includes 8 core classes on the skills, tools and tasks required to create a well-developed Culinary Chronicle. Additionally, participants can look forward to 1 peer review session,  4 interactions with experts guests on topics such as visual design and publishing and 1 mentoring  (1-on-1) session with me. 

Learn how to conceptualise, organise, research, document, and present your chronicling project with keen attention to your target audience and your voice as a chronicler. Get access to a detailed curriculum upon registration.

Tools and Resources: Participants of the course get access to

• Recommended reading lists
  
• Recommendations of chroniclers to follow and observe
  
• Skill-building assignments and peer-reviews
  
• A special swag kit filled with goodies that we will use systematically through the course
  

Bonus Tadka! Each participant will receive a swag kit of goodies that will be used systematically through exercises and assignments as the course progresses*.

*(Note: Exercises may include crafting food content around the brands and products from this kit, and you may be required to share some of these on your existing publishing platforms (blogs/social media) for peer-reviewing.)

Course Details:

Format: An online course spread across 12 sessions over 8 weeks on Google Meet. 

Batches: Participants can choose between weekday OR weekend batches for the core classes. 

Batch 1 - Weekend: Saturdays through September & October from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm(FULL)

Dates: September 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, October 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th

Batch 2 - Weekday: Tuesdays through September & October from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (FULL)

Dates: September 4th, 18th, 25th, October 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th

Batch 3 - Weekday: Thursdays through September & October from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm 

Dates: September 9th, 16th, 23st, 30th, October 7th, 14th, 21th, 28th

Dates subject to slight changes. 

Expert Guest Interactions (common for both batches): Sundays. Details will be shared as the course progresses.

1 on 1 Mentoring Sessions: Will be scheduled based on participant and my calendars.

Fee: Rs. 8,000 inclusive of taxes. Seats: ONLY 15 participants per batch. 

Registration: 

Register via this form today: https://forms.gle/hTuwNNtt3ey8CaFr7

Due to the online nature and extensive/detailed schedule of this course, we insist all bookings and registrations are done through a form. (This allows us to collect all the information we need from you in one streamlined process.) When filling the form, please use/fill the same email address you will use while attending the course on Google Meet. 

Feel free to email any queries to bookings@apbcookstudio.com