Migrant foods are an integral part of today’s multicultural Britain. Yet migrants’ agency in shaping food preferences has largely been ignored by academia and popular discourse alike. This oversight undermines the influence of migrant foodways as much as how different the localised approaches of aestheticization and commercialisation of said foods can be. It also ignores any discussion around taste formation, and the notion of “taste” as both a social differentiator and a multisensory experience.

My project aims to shed light on the importance of the senses in transnational food practices, and highlight migrant entrepreneurs’ decision making. 

Combining concepts and methodologies from sensory and linguistic anthropology, I am looking at the practical ways through which Korean food is prepared and sold in Greater London, and how attitudes towards Korean cuisine – an increasingly popular cuisine within the capital – are shaped from the get-go.

Based on the idea that taste is a preference that is influenced by biological and external factors alike – and something that is experienced in multisensory ways – I explore how Korean migrant chefs and restaurateurs replicate and transform food by mediating the senses, and the role they play in shaping its taste.