Chow Chow was an Asian food entry website founded by Yen and Dominik Hezinger. The objective was to catalyse cross-cultural understanding by introducing the diversity of Asian cuisines to Germany.
The website provided food recipes from different Asian regions, the information of ingredients and the alternative options that were available in Germany. It also offered the instructions on the utensils, cooking methods and shopping guides which gave visitors an extensive view of Asian kitchens.
Catalysing Cross-Cultural Understanding through the Learning of Food in East Asia
The project started in 2015 with Yen’s recognition of how distinctly Europeans identified Asian food from how Asians identified their home food. The term “Asia” was overly generalised in Germany to represent a monotonous imagination of exoticism, regardless of the fact that this enormous continent contained billions of population, diverse cultural characters, and intertwining cultural influences. The recreation of Asian food under this narrow scope was therefore very repetitive. The cultural minimisation, or so to say, generalisation, showcased in supermarkets where goods were named as “Asian sauce”, “Asian vegetables” and “Asian-flavoured”. As a representer of her culture, Yen tried to provide a more holistic picture of Asian cuisines, with the belief that food catalysed in-depth cross-cultural conversations.
Translating Eastern Cuisines into Intuitive Western Cookery Languages
嚼嚼 [jiào jiào] in Mandarin implies the action and the sound of chewing. The pronunciation is similar to the greeting “ciao ciao” which is often used among friends and family in Germany. This catchy word integrating the eastern and western meanings was determined to be the brand name to guide the visitors into the Asian culinary world.
Yen and Dominik wished to give users a holistic overview of dishes and let the food talked by itself. The website was initially constructed into two categories: the recipes, and the extensive information about ingredients, tools and guides. Other information like team, concept and contact were hidden with a drop-down menu. The logo design, font choice and colour combination satisfied the clean interface.
Related project: Pizza non Pizza