We may not be the best cooks in the world, but I think Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t go as far as kicking us out of his kitchen. I never really cooked before joining FIPDes, not because I was spoiled but because my mom never let me run out of food. Okay fine I was spoiled. For a lot of us though, that was the first time we got to share a piece of home with the rest. For an entire week, this lunch was all we talked about. Calling our moms for recipes and hunting down authentic imported ingredients in ethnic markets all over Paris was a hassle, but one we actually didn’t mind and didn’t look at as extra work. People coming from the same countries even teamed up and made extra delicious dishes cooked with double the love.

Most of the flavours I came across on that lunch table (and yes I tried everything) were new to me while others brought back so many good but sometimes really spicy memories. I also stumbled upon ingredients that I never knew existed, crazy! By the time the last couple of people finished describing the sweet/savoury dishes they made, I could see everyone drooling from across the room. From piquant Indian food on one end of the table, to Peruvian, Thai, Cambodian, Indonesian, Colombian, Brazilian, Bolivian, Slovenian, Irish, Iranian, Mexican, Tunisian, Italian, French, Guatemalan and so many more in between, to fresh earthy Greek on the other end, it was nothing less than a royal feast. And the best part? Zero waste. It’s all FIPDes is about.

Food is basically the emulsifier that binds us all (students and professors) together to create a homogeneous blend of cultures. It also lets us share the best moments of our lives together and a piece of our everyday back at home. Nothing compares to authentic home (or rather dorm)-cooked food.