Being the only Berlin-based team member running Cooking with Mama in Germany hasn’t been easy but it has been an incredible journey.
It all started with me being bored and checking Facebook in the beginning of 2013. Jennifer, the very own founder of Cooking with Mama and a classmate from my graduate school in London, was posting a lot about food. Being the curious foodie that I am, I clicked on her links and learned about the fantastic company she founded. I loved the idea and was hooked immediately. “This needs to come to Berlin”, I thought and started making that happen!
My mum is Indonesian, an incredible cook, and practically everything I know about cooking I learned from her. When I was a teenager, she started sharing her culinary knowledge with people from the neighborhood. First privately, then more professionally. We lived in a pretty average, pretty unexciting German town (sorry, people from Münster!). I couldn’t imagine average Germans loving the spicy stuff my mum was serving, let alone cooking it by themselves. I was wrong – and how!
My mum’s classes were a big success. I was never someone who could say no to a traditional Westphalian Grünkohl (kale) or Spargel (asparagus) meal. But I think that was the moment I truly stopped underestimating the culinary sense of Germans.
Fast forward 2014, I look back on two cooking classes with two amazing women, who I feel privileged to know. And I’m very much looking forward to growing the Mama team with a third woman who shares my cultural origins. Collaborating with the women has been a humbling experience every time, has been a lot of fun and has expanded my personal and culinary horizon in ways that I have never thought were possible. Being a falafel-addict for a long time, I felt ashamed for not knowing any of the other dishes Lebanese cuisine has to offer. Luckily, Mama Rabia educated me! The similar realization came to me when working with Mama Silva and learning about the omnipresent Turkish cuisine with kebab shops on every corner. There is always much more to discover!
The class participants I got to know were equally amazing. Berlin is the most un-German city of Germany and has always attracted people from all over the world, but I did not expect that kind of international atmosphere in our cooking classes. I had people utilizing their broken English to translate the cooking instructions in broken German to someone whose skills in either language were limited.
It made me realize how the language of food can truly transcend all other language barriers! I know now that at a Cooking with Mama event really everyone can expect to learn something new - sometimes unexpectedly – and we can all expect to walk home happily with a full stomach, great memories and even new friends.
If you’re in Berlin, please come and join the fun in Berlin on March at the next Cooking with Mama class!
The author is Shinta Harsana, founder of Cooking With Mama Berlin
To get in touch with Shinta, please feel free to email her at shinta@cookingwithmama.org
