Cook & Keep
by Shruti Taneja
New Delhi
Project Description
Cook & Keep: A life-size board game and public storytelling installation where participants co-create a living recipe, preserving India’s culinary heritage through play, memory, and community.
Expected Impact
Cook & Keep is a life-size board game and public installation where participants collect ingredients, stories, and traditions to co-create a living recipe and celebrate India’s culinary heritage. In response to the urgent need to preserve disappearing culinary knowledge amid rapid urbanization and generational disconnect, this project bridges generations, transforming fragile food memories into lasting community assets. Through sensorial gameplay, oral histories, sustainability challenges, and personal storytelling, Cook & Keep redefines cultural value, validates everyday kitchen wisdom, and inspires sustainable food practices. It fosters intergenerational conversations, regional pride, and communal participation, empowering communities to become active guardians of their culinary knowledge and celebrate the living heritage carried within their food.
Applicant Background
I bring to this project my experience as the founder of Nivaala, a storytelling and cultural preservation platform focused on documenting family recipes and food memories across India. At Nivaala, we help families preserve their culinary heritage by treating recipes not just as instructions but as heirlooms. These are personal, intergenerational narratives that deserve to be remembered, recorded, and shared. We’ve built tools like our Cook & Keep recipe journal for children and a voice recording app that allows families to preserve food stories in their own voices. Our work actively supports individuals and communities in reclaiming culinary memory as a form of cultural inheritance. We are also developing Food Atlas, an interactive map to document hyperlocal family recipes, traditional cooking methods, and indigenous ingredients from across India. This ongoing project aims to celebrate the diversity of Indian kitchens and the knowledge held within them. Our publishing work includes community cookbooks and personal food archives, most notably Memories on a Plate — a collection of food stories across generations that was recently shortlisted among the top four global entries in the “Food Writing” category at the Gourmand Awards. These experiences have grounded our practice in thoughtful documentation, community engagement, and design that is emotionally resonant, culturally sensitive, and accessible to diverse audiences. They also give us the platform, networks, and tested tools to bring Cook & Keep: A Living Recipe Book to life at scale.
Resources Needed
- Funding
- Mentorship
- Visibility
Support This Project
Connect with Shruti or learn more about the project or support in making this come to life.