Low Carbon Chinatown Digital Cookbook is a digital tool used in Low Carbon Chinatown that enables people to learn about the impact of food on the environment, and ways to tackle the climate crisis through cooking.
Awards: Finalist Award for Seoul Design Award 2023
Featured in: London Design Festival 2022, Design Exchange
The platform allows participants to experiment with making low carbon (footprint) version of dishes at home, using it to record their steps and make sense of the dish’s carbon footprint data via different phases of the cooking process, from farming, food processes, sourcing of ingredients, cooking techniques, to food waste. The platform also allows the wider public to access a few low carbon (footprint) recipes developed by the project’s participants, data scientist and food writers, and learn about the carbon footprint data related to the dishes. Visit the Low Carbon Chinatown Digital Cookbook here to access all the low carbon recipes developed in the project.
The low carbon recipes were visually documented using similar aesthetic to those often seen in popular online food blogs as a way to explore visual representation and embedding of carbon footprint data into the food making process that would incentivise people to practice the methods at home, and from it, explore other ways to reduce their carbon footprint through food and cooking. Below are some of the recipes and documentation of the participatory process.
Low Carbon Hainanese Chicken Rice
How do we cook our favourite dishes using a lower carbon footprint approach? UK-based Burmese Chef and Food Writer MiMi Aye explored cooking low carbon Chicken Rice with a group of participants living in central London, focusing on reducing the carbon footprint using cooking techniques. The result is a low carbon version of the dish – with chicken still included!
Low Carbon Sweet & Sour ‘Pork’
UK-based Vietnamese food writer and photographer Uyen Luu worked with a group of participants living in and around Hackney to develop a low carbon (footprint) version of a classic and popular sweet and sour pork dish with a reduced carbon footprint through buying and growing locally grown produce. No one misses pork once they taste this!
Low Carbon Wonton Dumpling Soup
Who doesn’t love dumplings? Traditional wonton dumpling uses pork and prawn in the fillings. In this version, UK-based Singaporean food writer Shu Han Lee worked with a group of participants from Newham to develop a low carbon (footprint) of the wonton dumpling soup with vegetarian fillings that taste like meat and wrappings that are made in London.
Special thanks to
Data scientist Raphael Leung
Collaborating Food writers MiMi Aye, Uyen Luu and Shu Han Lee
Community partners London Chinese Community Centre, Hackney Chinese Community Centre, Newham Chinese Association and Royal Docks
Kakilang Team An-Ting Chang, Daniel York Loh, Sandy Wan, Katrina Man, Apollonia Bauer, Si Rawlinson
Low Carbon Chinatown is a project by Ling Tan, produced by Kakilang.
