Baking & Pastry Arts Applied Food Studies

Why did I choose my majors?

Food studies is an academic field that has only been explored and seen for its scholastic asset for the last 50 years. From ethnography, psychology, anthropology to food science, styling, photography, it seeks to unravel the merits under one big umbrella- to understand the relationship between human experiences and food.

What makes them so compelling?

There’s a simple answer to this- it gives human experience a bigger why. Why do we eat the way we do? Why do we have certain etiquettes, traditions and morales (foodways) that surrounds the consumption of food? Why does that experience differ from one another even when presented the same exact ingredients? “Value the mystery”- Sam Levinson, Malcom and Marie.

So there it is, you get to decide your ‘why’. From there, the combination gives everyone the empowerment to curate their reality. The mystery in something intersectional and multi-disciplinary, gives us the ever-propelling drive to be better at what we do.

What’s next?

One of my biggest goals, ultimately, is to create a vision for people to comprehend that human experiences are collaborative. Pleasure is collaborative. Success is collaborative. Small moments that make up our daily lives are collaborative. It’s true that the world is vast, brutal and ephemeral, but those are also the qualities that connects our answers from within. When food becomes an art form, it extends above the superficial qualities of mere sustenance. It becomes life, it becomes hope, and it becomes an inner voice we all yearn for. It becomes a medium to hold space for those who needs it more than ever. It is a mission that evolves by the second, but one that I will always be a part of.