Edible Michiana Holiday 2022

food for thought

The Unstable Seed of Food Heritage

STORY AND PHOTO BY Anne Magnan-Park ILLUSTRATION BY MelissaWashburn

As a “Franco-Hoosier” (a first-generation immigrant from France who acquired her American citizenship in Indiana), I see heritage food as an invaluable yet unstable seed. I do have a green thumb for French cuisine, and I am lucky to have inherited a culinary tradition that is well-established and valued. However, I have come to question what “heritage” cooking means and to whom. What I have learned about heritage food comes less from French chefs and family members than from visionary Indigenous chefs, farmers and thinkers from Turtle Island and Aotearoa New Zealand. In my idealist mind, heritage food is sustainably grown, accessible to all, and the ABCs of its cuisine are highly nutritious. Heritage food is genealogy and storytelling. It is reconciliation. It is sovereignty. It sustains the communities—past and present— who have nurtured the ingredients we choose to purchase. In this respect, heritage culinary traditions and food— especially stemming from marginalized populations—must be protected from cultural appropriation for commercial gain. How did I arrive at these conclusions? My mother, Geneviève Magnan, my upbringing in the South of France and my research have something to do with it. Because Geneviève was a full-time school principal and teacher, she requested my siblings and I give her some space when she started cooking after a long day. We obliged. She shared

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| HOL IDAY 2022