Cookbook Roma Style!

Andrew Gatti (’13 Jesuit Roma College & EducationUSA Hungary ETA) and his students just published Cook Roma Style! Please contact us or the Roma College for a hard copy!

The following is a translation of an article in Hungarian from the website of the Jesuit Roma Residential College:

The Jesuit Roma College (JRC) was cordially invited to a Fulbright Cultural Evening on May 24th, 2014 held at the Brody House. JRC was the host institution of Mr. Andrew Gatti, an American Fulbrighter, and teacher of the advanced English class at the College.

For our end-term project we decided to create a cookbook together. Though, this cookbook is not like any other. It is special because it contains traditional Hungarian-Roma recipes, titled Cook Roma Style.

As the end product of our joint efforts, the Hungarian-American Fulbright Commission along with the Jesuit Roma College published our work through 600 copies. Its purpose is to present traditional gypsy specialties to the general public, especially foreigners. The contents are in English. First, we collected the recipes in Hungarian then we translated them into English together. Students who contributed to the work were Krisztina Balogh, Alexandra Bangó, Réka Szénási, Ágnes Zubor, and Kitti Zsigmond.

We would like to thank the Fulbright Commission for making this project possible.

We may read the following in the Introduction of the book:

“We are six university students from Hungary who are not just Hungarian, but Roma people as well. We were thinking about how we could introduce our Roma culture in different settlements and countries. We all come from different places but we all have the same goal, besides graduating, to put an end to hatred, which has been formed because of stereotypes. We want to show and also prove to others who we actually are.

As a first step, we believe that this cookbook is a way to achieve our goal. We have learned from our parents and grandparents that we could influence men through their stomach and also that the biggest decisions in life were made at a great lunch or next to a fantastic dinner. Both lessons, revolve around cooking.

The Roma or gypsies’ situation is a serious problem nowadays in Hungary. Many people don’t know our culture or where we come from, not to mention the fact that we are actually colorful characters. According to history, Roma people come from India. The Roma culture is rich with its own language, music, traditions, and of course, cuisine. As students of the Jesuit Roma Szakkollégium (dormitory), we have been provided an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and our culture. We are surrounded in a community that fosters a healthy self-image and helps form out the ‘double identity’ that many Hungarian-Roma students deal with here.

We would like to thank Andrew Gatti for the possibility to establish and edit this cookbook. We have tried to convey all of the practices and skills that we have learned from our relatives and also from that specific prowess, which is the Roma people’s possession. Enjoy cooking, eating, and discovering the Roma culture. Jó étvágyat!”

To view the booklet, see issuu.com/fulbrighthungary/docs/cook_roma_style

To download the booklet, see www.fulbright.hu/doc/Cook_Roma_Style.pdf