Guided course: Learn to tell stories through recipes

The Story Surrounding the Recipe

A guided course by Sumayya Usmani , Creative Writer and Food Educator

Creative Writer and Food Educator. Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Joined May 2021
77 students
Audio: English, German, Spanish (Latam), French, Indonesian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish
Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian

About the video: The Story Surrounding the Recipe

Overview

“Why write a story surrounding the recipe? Because it makes it attractive to the reader and interesting enough for them to want to try the recipe. In this lesson, I'll teach you how to work with this element of your cookbook's narrative and explain how it differs from the introduction to the chapter.”

In this video lesson Sumayya Usmani addresses the topic: The Story Surrounding the Recipe, which is part of the Domestika online course: Guided course: Learn to tell stories through recipes. Discover the narration of stories through the writing of kitchen books, combining recipes with personal stories to captivate culinary experiences.

Partial transcription of the video

“In this lesson, I'm going to teach you how to write a story surrounding a recipe. So this introduction to your recipe will be about the recipe itself. So it could be a personal story regarding the recipe. or one that is about a heritage recipe. This introduction to the recipe tells a little bit of a story about the recipe, whether it's a personal memory that's linked to this recipe or it's from a different cuisine that you want to introduce to your reader. This should be written in an evocative, inviting way to make your reader really want to cook the recipe. So this is also a really good t...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.


Course summary for: Guided course: Learn to tell stories through recipes

  • Level: Beginner
  • 77 students
  • 1 unit
  • 6 lessons (49m)
  • 1 download
  • Category

    Culinary, Writing
  • Areas

    Creative Writing, Non-Fiction Writing, Storytelling

Sumayya Usmani

Sumayya Usmani
A guided course by Sumayya Usmani

Teacher Plus
Creative Writer and Food Educator

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, award-winning creative writer and food educator, Sumayya Usmani, spent her early childhood travelling the world with her parents. She explored various cultures, countries, ingredients, and cuisines and watched in wonder as her mother lovingly prepared meals. Later, when the family settled back in Karachi, Sumayya observed grandmothers and aunts cooking with ‘andaza’ - an Urdu word for using instinct and estimation. These experiences created Sumayya’s strong foundations and connections to cooking and in her adulthood she found she could cook by simply following her own intuition and senses.

Sumayya went on to practice law for 12 years in London and Pakistan. However, in 2012 she quit law in pursuit of her passion; food writing and teaching. Now based in Glasgow, her life-long love for writing, along with her natural flair, has led her to publish award-winning cookbooks. Her latest book is a food memoir, and ventures further into creative writing, which has won the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2021. Sumayya regularly appears at multiple book festivals such as the Edinburgh Book Festival, she has written for and appeared in numerous publications including in The New York Times, The Guardian, and on BBC Food, amongst others. She’s a guest speaker on many podcasts and a regular on BBC Radio. Sumayya also hosts cooking classes, and is a committee member of the Guild of Food Writers.


  • 77 students
  • 6 lessons (49m)
  • 5 additional resources (1 files)
  • Online and at your own pace
  • Available on the app
  • Audio: English, German, Spanish (Latam), French, Indonesian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish
  • Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
  • Level: Beginner
  • Unlimited access forever

Category

Areas

Guided course: Learn to tell stories through recipes. Writing, and Culinary course by Sumayya Usmani

Guided course: Learn to tell stories through recipes

A guided course by Sumayya Usmani
Creative Writer and Food Educator. Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Joined May 2021
  • 77 students