Kalyani Saxena

Like you're going to start from a place of ignorance when you're exploring a culture that isn't yours, but hopefully, uh,

part of your process is like leaning more into that and acknowledging and understanding the culture better.

Cause I think that's better for all of us achieving understanding amongst each other.

Yeah, and there's so many interesting parts of this.

I will say I did reach out to Courtney Cook for comment, and I did hear back.

And her team said that Courtney really believes it's important to give credit, avoid presenting these dishes as her own creations, and to approach them with respect.

Her team also acknowledged that food naturally moves between communities, particularly online, and that Courtney's intention—

is always to celebrate, amplify, and not take ownership of the cultures behind the food.

So there's, that's her response.

Here's what I think, and here's what I've sort of picked up from how people have responded.

Like, I think that Courtney Cook is likely coming from that place of, you were talking about, right?

Like, she enjoys this food, she appreciates this food, she wants to share this food, right?

And to a certain degree, like all of us, right, when we're trying recipes from other cultures, there is going to be a like, well, I don't know how to do this, but I'm going to try it.

And we all sort of adapt and cook recipes from other places all the time.

But I think what makes this distinct and the issue at hand is who gets to benefit when something from another culture becomes popular?

You know, who gets the props for making something delicious?

Who gets those potential cooking book deals or the followers, right?

Like that is kind of, to me, where the line gets a little blurry around like who is profiting and who gets to kind of reap the reward of a genuinely wonderful, delicious dish from a community of people.

There's another dish that Courtney Cook sort of came under fire for talking about.

It's called Korean army-based stew.