If I Don’t Call Myself Brown, What Do I Call Myself? – The Fi2W Podcast

Nik Sharma speaks with Kathy Gunst. Photo: Jocelyn Gonzales

A few years ago Nik Sharma created his blog called A Brown Table and upended the culinary world by including photographs of his own brown hands working in the kitchen. It was a powerful statement in a field where most food modeling features white hands.

Today Nik is an influential voice challenging widely-held ideas about identity, race and sexual orientation as well as American misconceptions about food from India, the country of his birth.

Nik is the author of Season, his first cookbook, and writes a column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Recently he sat down with Kathy Gunst, the Resident Chef on NPR’s Here and Now and author of the forthcoming book Rage Baking, to talk about his work, his approach to food writing (Hint, you’ll be surprised to hear about his process.), race, identity and how the culinary world is simultaneously changing and resisting calls for greater diversity.  Their conversation was recorded on May 31, 2019 in San Francisco at Feet in 2 Worlds’ workshop on Telling Immigrant Food Stories.

Listen to more podcasts from our San Francisco workshop.

Something About It That Represents Home

How Food Journalism Can Be A Force For Change

The workshop was presented in partnership with Civil Eats and Making Contact.

Major funding for the workshop comes from The International Association of Culinary Professionals’ foundation, The Culinary Trust, and its Growing Leaders Food Writing program. The Food Writing Program is funded with the support of the Boston Foundation.  Support also comes from Grow and the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses.

Fi2W is supported by The Ford Foundation, the David and Katherine Moore Family Foundation, the Ralph E. Odgen Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, an anonymous donor and readers like you.

AboutJohn Rudolph
John Rudolph, Executive Producer, is a journalist with more than 40 years experience as a public radio program host and producer of documentaries, podcasts and news reports. John produced the award-winning documentary Feet in Two Worlds: Immigrants in a Global City, which was the debut for the Feet in 2 Worlds project.