ETSU’s Multicultural Center put together a cultural cooking class on Feb. 18, where students could have a good time and try new foods from different cultures and learn how to cook them as well.

These dishes come from multiple cultures such as Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, China and Jamaica. Students would put together a variety of ingredients to create the dishes. This event was put together by the Multicultural Center staff member Emmanuel Ajomo, who had the goal of bringing everyone together through diverse recipes.

  • (Photograph by Maddi Miller / East Tennessean)
  • (Photograph by Maddi Miller / East Tennessean)
  • (Photograph by Maddi Miller / East Tennessean)
  • (Photograph by Maddi Miller / East Tennessean)
  • (Photograph by Maddi Miller / East Tennessean)

“The overall goal was to have people from all diverse cultures have the recipes and try to cook it at home,” Ajomo said. “The idea was to have them come and to taste it and whatever ingredients we had left we would split among those that want it and email the recipes to them so they can try it.”

Another thing that was big during this cooking class was the emphasis on healthy eating. A lot of the dishes that were made had little sugar and more vegetables. These dishes included Chinese dumplings, Ghana’s shrimp fried rice, Jamaican stew chicken, Jamaican steamed cabbage and Nigerian fried rice, just to name a few.

“Some of the spices are not important in America like some are here,” Ajomo said when discussing the difference between American food and the food that was being cooked Tuesday. “Because in America you have rice, it depends on how you cook your rice, because the rice for Africa we use vegetables you would use for your salad.”

After an overall success for the cultural cooking class this semester, Ajomo has big plans for the future of the cooking class.

“I’m hoping that this will reach out to the ETSU community as a whole, so next time when they come and they hear that we’re having another class, we’ll have more students participating in it and before you know it, it’s a household name,” Ajomo said. “We want to put it in the hearts of the people to enjoy this cooking and see the difference in cultures and actually enjoy it and be diverse in nature.”