Episode 94: Sharing Food Stories, Building Community, and Rediscovering the Pleasure of Cooking with Sophia Musoki, Founder of A Kitchen in Uganda
Podcast
Episode 94: Sharing Food Stories, Building Community, and Rediscovering the Pleasure of Cooking with Sophia Musoki, Founder of A Kitchen in Uganda
“I can’t remember a time when I was not involved in something creative.”— Sophia Musoki
Welcome to this week’s episode, which is all about sharing other people’s stories, building community, and evolving with the creative process. I’m joined by Sophia Musoki, a Ugandan food blogger, podcast host, writer, and photographer. Her passion for food storytelling is palpable, in this episode she spreads her deep love for Ugandan food and culture.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform while you cook, clean, or create.
What’s in This Episode:
Sophia shares the behind-the-scenes of how her podcast, Our Food Stories, was developed and how it originally evolved from her recipe blog into a podcast highlighting what other Ugandans are cooking. Her podcast invites people from all over Uganda to share their food stories, recipes, and traditions. I highly recommend tuning into the podcast because the stories people share bring you right into their kitchens, traditions, and hearts.
When it comes to feeling creatively blocked, Sophia’s process is to take a step back, take a digital detox, and reengage with slow activities. When she turns off her phone and dives into a novel by an African author, she returns to her work being able to see things in a new light. Now that her blog is no longer her primary focus, Sophia is rediscovering the pleasure of cooking and trying new recipes she finds on TikTok without feeling the outcome must be perfect.
Topics Covered:
Sophia’s explanation about how being creative is second nature to her and how creative thinking plays a part in her writing.
The behind-the-scenes of how Sophia created her podcast and how she is a creative vessel for sharing other people’s food stories from Uganda.
How Sophia’s podcast feels like the tradition of African elders sharing stories around a fire after dinner. This articleis where Sophia shares what her family’s Christmas Eve is like.
What it’s like to create something new after being creatively burnt out.
How stepping back to let other people share their stories sparked Sophia’s creativity, inspired deeper learning, and helped build community.
Sophia’s transition from cooking for her blog to cooking for herself. Cooking has become pleasurable again since she feels less pressure without having to test recipes and make them perfect.
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts, leave a comment below!
Eat Well,
xo Chef Carla
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Disclaimer: Always seek the counsel of a qualified medical practitioner or other healthcare provider for an individual consultation before making any significant changes to your health, lifestyle, or to answer questions about specific medical conditions. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
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About Sophia Musoki
Sophia Musoki is a Ugandan food writer and food photographer. Her work through the blog A Kitchen in Uganda, which has been instrumental in bringing Ugandan cuisine to the world, has been featured on Cuisine Noir, CNN, City Press, HuffPost and many other media publications. She has self-published 3 e-books one of which won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2016.
Her blog has been nominated for the prestigious Saveur Magazine blog award (2018) in the food culture category and she has presented at the Culinary Institute of America about Ugandan food culture.
Sophia hosts and produces the ‘Our Food Stories’ podcast. The podcast is a way to share long-forgotten food traditions, ingredients, and dishes of Ugandans from all walks of life. She also writes a monthly newsletter about food and its connection to culture, identity, and politics.
Find + Work with Sophie:
Listen to Sophie’s podcast, Our Food Stories
Read more on Sophie’s website, A Kitchen In Uganda
Follow Sophie on Instagram here
Sign up for A Kitchen In Uganda’s newsletter
Check out Sophie’s expertise in this Huffington Post article
Full Transcript:
Chef Carla Contreras (00:01):
Welcome to Nourishing Creativity. The cycle of the last few years has left you and me feeling mentally, physically, emotionally, and creatively drained, nourish your very full life through interviews with creatives and entrepreneurs about how they create and move through their creative blocks. If you don't know me, I'm Chef Carla Contreras, a food stylist and content strategist. You can find me, chef Carla Contreras, across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. Sophie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm so grateful to have you here. I would love for you to introduce yourself and how you serve the world.
Sophia Musoki (00:49):
All right. Thank you for having me. I am so happy to be here. So my name is Sophie Moki, although I do go by Sophie and I am a food blogger, a food writer, and a food photographer. So my blog is called A Kitchen in Uganda, and I also write a newsletter called A Kitchen in Uganda. And then I also do food photography on this side. And I've been doing this or everything combined. I've been doing it for over 10 years now.
Chef Carla Contreras (01:20):
Amazing, amazing. Can I ask you, what was your last meal?
Sophia Musoki (01:25):
Oh, that's a good question because I just had chapati and atil soup. That sounds delicious.
Chef Carla Contreras (01:34):
Sophie. I'd love to talk about creativity and how you nourish your creativity because I just witnessing your, I want to say your creative spark through your newsletter, through your podcast. I would really love to know what's behind that.
Sophia Musoki (01:53):
Alright, so for me, creativity at this point, I feel like it is second nature. I can't remember a time when I was not involved in something creative, even from when I was a child. I was always doing things, creating things. I remember in school, primary school, we call it primary school where I come from, we would have these sewing and basket making competitions and those were my favorite parts of the school day, just to go in there and create stuff. So looking back now, I realize I've always been involved in something creative. Whether it is something that has to do with my hands or it is something that has to do with my mind thinking creatively or creating worlds, coming up with scenarios, which is why writing is something that I really love to do.
Chef Carla Contreras (02:44):
And through your podcast, I'd love to go deeper into your podcast and the reason and the creativity behind it because when I listened to it I was like, this is a genius way to tell stories. Can you tell us what was the idea behind it? How did that creativity spark from you?
Sophia Musoki (03:05):
Alright, so that's a very good question. Thank you for asking it. I think not many people have asked me this, and I would love to share more of what inspired the podcast because I think it's one, I would say one of my greatest works so far, and it's not even my work, it's just me being a vessel for these stories to be told. So I remember it was somewhere between 2020 and 2021 I was thinking of, I don't know, just like everyone else, I was experiencing burnout and I was wondering, contemplating on where to push the platform next because I found myself getting exhausted and I was thinking I can't continue doing this same thing, the creativity, it's draining me and it was showing in the work that I was doing. So I kind of took a step back and I thought what would be a better way to still share the message that I'm sharing, but in a more inclusive way?
(04:07)
So I remember thinking, I have been writing this blog for 10 years now, and it is one person's point of view. So a lot of people will say, I read your blog from this place. A lot of international readers whom I'm grateful for, they will share how the blog has inspired them to create different kinds of dishes. But then I realize that it's just my perspective of the food I eat and the fact that it's called a kitchen in Uganda means that people who are not well-informed about the country can use my accounts or my recollection of what I share to judge the whole country. And I felt that was not fair for me and for also the people in the country. So I was thinking, because obviously food storytelling is really my passion. So I was thinking how can I make this more inclusive?
(04:59)
How can I include more people? Because I don't want it to just be about me and my experiences. I want people to have a diverse understanding of what the country is, of how people eat, how people go on with their daily lives. And so I thought of having a podcast and I was thinking that it'll be a great way to have different people come on, share their traditions, their cultural practices, how they consume the food, because the way I consume a certain food where I come from might be different from where another person, let's say a person coming from the eastern part of the country, how they consume their own food. So yeah, that's how I came up with the idea. And again, it was also another way for me to take a step back because I felt like I had been on the internet for too long and I just wanted to take a step back and let other people share their experiences. And so Sophie,
Chef Carla Contreras (05:57):
How do people share that with you? How do they actually submit this to you? How does the process of the podcast work?
Sophia Musoki (06:07):
I wanted to make the process really easy for people because coming from where I come from, the infrastructure is not the greatest things like podcasting, things like being on the internet, it's still a struggle. So as much as I wanted a lot of people to join the podcast, I was also aware that it was going to be something challenging for most of the people. So I told them, this is something that's going to be easy, I'll reach out. So for example, I'll send an email to a few prospects maybe on Twitter or sometimes on Facebook, sometimes on Instagram even. And I'll be like, Hey, I'm doing this, would you care to join? This is my objective for the podcast and I would really love to hear from you. And then when the person responds, I share the guidelines of how they can contribute. And one of the things that I really emphasize is that I don't want this to feel like it's a burden to you.
(07:05)
You don't have to feel obligated to participate. If you are not aligned with a message, it's all right. You can say, I'm just not into it and it's fine with me. Because as much as I wanted to share these stories, I wanted them to be genuine stories that are from people sharing their genuine experiences. So I didn't want it to look to be something that is well crafted. So even I tell them, if you don't have to have a recording device, fancy mics and all of these things, all of this equipment, you can just use the recording app on your phone, you can send it to me via WhatsApp because it's the easiest way a person can send a file. So yeah, I do send files to the people on WhatsApp and they send them back to me on WhatsApp and I make that process really easy and seamless.
Chef Carla Contreras (07:55):
This is so magical. And so for people that haven't listened to your podcast, can you tell us about how the food stories unfold? Because for me listening, some of them, it's like literally being in the kitchen and experiencing their way of life, their way of cooking, their way of enjoying, and it reminds me of being in the kitchen with my family. Food is universal and I feel like it's such a, you're right, a genuine experience. I'd love to know more about that.
Sophia Musoki (08:32):
Alright, so it's really simple. When I send out the guidelines, I tell them, feel free to share this story however you would love if it's much easier for you to share it in your local language. Because even in Uganda itself, there are languages I do not know as much as we're one country, we have different languages. So if easier for the person to share it in their language, they are free to do that. And then I can always find a translator or usually the child or the person sharing the story will be the translator. So it creates that personal bond because sometimes I will get stories from daughters asking their moms sons asking their mothers, and then they'll reach out and they'll say, this is such a great experience, thank you for initiating this, because now I can have this moment with my mom, or I have this recording of my mom telling this story for eternity should anything happen.
(09:29)
I know I have this recording and it's really warms my heart because that's really the goal. I remember when the podcast started, I told people that growing up we used to have this thing, this tradition. I think it's in most African traditions where usually after dinner or before dinner, you sit around an elder and they tell you stories of their past, of their youth. And those were some of my favorite moments. They will tell you things you didn't even know about. So they'll tell sometimes. I remember my father would tell me, did you know this food came about in such and such a way? And I'd be like, oh, that's interesting. I did not know that. So I kind of wanted to recreate that feel, feel of sitting around an elder or around a fire telling stories, but in a digital format. And now that you've mentioned that you feel like it takes you back to the kitchen, I feel like the goal of the podcast is accomplished.
Chef Carla Contreras (10:26):
I feel like you really nailed it. You really accomplished your goal because it brings the listener and obviously I'll put the podcast in the show notes for people to listen. It really brings the listener into that person's personal experience of what is their family, what are these holidays? Even your, I loved reading your article, I'll have to put that in the show notes as well about your Christmas traditions. That was an incredible article and it really brings people into your experience. And I think that it's just so special. And I loved hearing that this is part of people's family experience as well. It brings people together and this is such an incredible project.
Sophia Musoki (11:20):
Thank you, thank you. And I'm excited. I really am excited for the stories that have been shared so far. I think it's really great. I know that it's still challenging because sometimes, again, like I say, the infrastructure is a challenge. Sometimes people want to, but being able to find the internet bundles to send over the files and all of that, sometimes it's challenging. So I just wish that I get to continue this for as long as I possibly can because I am learning as well. One of the reasons I wanted to create this was because I wanted to take a step back as the voice of a kitchen in Uganda because I felt like I had talked, or I had shared so much about myself in such a long time, and I wanted to take a step back and kind of let these stories shine because there is so much more that we don't know. There's so much more that I do not know myself. So with every story, I also learn something new, which is really great. Then we all get to learn something. Yeah,
Chef Carla Contreras (12:27):
That's amazing. That's such a gift. I would love to ask you about Creative Blocks, and we chatted about this before we hopped on the podcast, but I feel like as creatives and people that live a creative lifestyle, especially because you do food photography, you have your newsletter, you have your podcast, what do you do when you feel creatively blocked?
Sophia Musoki (12:55):
That's a good question. I feel like this podcast came out of Creative Block, so great things do come out of that. But one thing I will say is that around the time I started feeling uninspired to create, especially for Instagram, because there was a lot of things happening, the changes, the algorithm and all of that, I felt so overwhelmed. One of the things I really like to do is to just take a step back. So I remember, to be honest, 2021 and 2022, I have not been that active online, and it's for a reason. I felt like I need to take a step back and is it called Detoxing Detox for all of these things? So sometimes I will just turn off my phone and maybe these days I enjoy reading books. I enjoy reading books just for fun novels, a lot of African writers.
(13:53)
So yeah, taking a step back is really one of the things that really helps me. And I find that once I do take a step back, when I return, I am able to see or look at this thing in a new light and then look for ways to attack it. So for me, the podcast again started after a lot of time where I was contemplating on shutting down the blog. I was thinking it doesn't make sense anymore. It's no longer relevant, it has done its job. I think it's time to end it. And in a way, I think I did because I no longer blog actively, but also I feel like it was a natural transition for the podcast to happen because now people return to the blog to listen to the podcast. And thus I feel that's a much better thing for the blog to be showcasing instead of continuously showcasing what I'm sharing, which is not bad in end of itself, but I feel growth has happened for the blog and for myself. And I feel like I now can focus on bigger and better things. That's
Chef Carla Contreras (14:59):
Incredible. I love hearing the behind the scenes in the evolution of the podcast and how you set up the structure of the blog and then boom, the podcast came in. It was almost like you built the platform to create the podcast.
Sophia Musoki (15:18):
Right? Right. And it's funny you say that because after the first season of the podcast, then the newsletter was naturally born out of that because I found myself, after listening to all of these stories, I would go back and forth chatting with some of the contributors and they would share so much more. And I remember thinking, we don't really have these conversations. We don't have conversations about some of the reasons why some of the foods, so for example, the foods that some of the contributors share are no longer eaten. We don't have conversations about how food means to us culturally, how food means to us socially as a people. So the podcast, no, the newsletter is a way for social commentary on some of these food issues that we face. And just like you said, it naturally came out of the podcast. So I think it's a transitioning period, and who knows where it'll end. Maybe the podcast will end, maybe the newsletter will continue and maybe that will birth something else.
Chef Carla Contreras (16:26):
It's so fascinating. And are you still doing food photography?
Sophia Musoki (16:31):
Yes, I do, but not as much as I would love to because now I have so many things I have to juggle, although I still do. Yeah.
Chef Carla Contreras (16:41):
And are you creating recipes for yourself versus creating recipes for the blog? Is that the transition?
Sophia Musoki (16:49):
Right, that's a good question. Actually, the other day I was thinking about how now that I no longer create recipes for the blog, I cook a lot more for myself. So I always in the kitchen cooking, I'll put on my favorite playlist and cook, and my new favorite thing is to go on TikTok and try out different recipes. So that has been fun. And I find that cooking just for myself, it's become fun because it kind of takes away the pressure of having to make everything perfect for the blog. So previously when I used to create recipes for the blog, I would have to test it and test it and make sure that by the time it's out there, people can try it. There are no, they don't face any challenges recreating the dish. And I think in a way that took the fun out of the creativity of creating recipes. So now that I'm doing it for myself, I find it much easier to actually be creative, which is so funny.
Chef Carla Contreras (17:53):
That is so, I love that. I think it's so insightful too, because as a recipe developer myself, I feel like people don't see that behind the scenes of testing, testing, testing. And for me, some of those recipes, it might be, I don't know, a cookie and at the end of the day, I don't have something to make for dinner quickly. Right,
Sophia Musoki (18:17):
Right.
Chef Carla Contreras (18:18):
We don't talk about this
Sophia Musoki (18:20):
And you don't even want to eat the cookie anymore. Tasted it so many times.
Chef Carla Contreras (18:25):
Yes, you're done. Yes. I usually give the cookie to the neighbors. They're so happy.
Sophia Musoki (18:31):
That is so true.
Chef Carla Contreras (18:33):
Oh my goodness, I love this. So Sophie, what is on the creative horizon for you? Is there anything that you have your sights on? Is there any ideas that are coming to the top
Sophia Musoki (18:46):
Right now? Again, I think coming a transition, like I mentioned, transitioning from being a blogger to producing a podcast, to taking a step back and pursuing other creative endeavors. And now the newsletter, I've been enjoying writing the newsletter and in the process of writing the newsletter, I found myself interested in the scholarly side of food actually. So who knows what will happen, but for now, I think I'm going to be writing the newsletter and focusing on that and continuing to collect stories for the podcast.
Chef Carla Contreras (19:28):
Incredible. Thank you so much for sharing with us. Where can we find you? How can we support you?
Sophia Musoki (19:34):
Alright, so the blog is called A Kitchen in uganda.com, and you can find the podcast there. The podcast is called Our Food Stories, where we regular people share stories of our food as we remember it. And then the newsletter is also called A Kitchen in Uganda newsletter.
Chef Carla Contreras (19:54):
Amazing. Thank you so much, Sophie. I'm so grateful for you.
Sophia Musoki (19:58):
Thank you for having me.
Chef Carla Contreras (19:59):
It was great Chatting with you.
Thanks so much for tuning in to Nourishing Creativity. You can find me Chef Carla Contreras across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. While you have your phone out, please leave a review on iTunes or Spotify. This is how others find this show. I really appreciate your support sending you and yours so much love.