Decolonizing Our Diets: Food and Culture as Resilience and Resistance Event Photos

On March 13, 2025, RRS co-sponsored a panel discussion, “Decolonizing Our Diets: Food and Culture as Resilience and Resistance,” which featured four award winning chefs. Organized and moderated by RRS lecturer and climate justice activist, Gopal Dayaneni, the panel featured Reem Assil (award-winning Palestinian-Syrian chef and author based in Oakland), Bryant Terry (award-winning African American vegan chef, food justice activist, and author), Samin Nosrat (award-winning Iranian-American chef and author of the #1 NYT best seller, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat), and Crystal Wahpepah (an Indigenous food warrior, restaurant owner, and author).

The dynamic discussion focused on the number of ways in which food and food culture is a form of resilience and resistance amongst oppressed peoples. The chefs discussed how food has been a form of resistance against colonization, enslavement, capitalism, war, and genocide. They reflected on how they have woven the political histories of their own communities into their work as chefs and public intellectuals.