Cooking for positive change

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about Fatmata Binta, the winner of the prestigious 2022 Basque Culinary World Prize. There’s music (ok, sound) from the Black Hole (no kidding!), the Bonus Question, “Listeners Corner”, and “Music from Erwan”. All that, and the new quiz question, too. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy! 

Sound Kitchen Podcast RFI

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your musical requests, so get them in! Send your musical requests to [e-mail]  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts which will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Africa Calling, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service.  Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose “Listen to RFI / Podcasts”, and you’ve got ‘em ! You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note!  I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [e-mail]  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: My beloved music teacher from St Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, Br Gerald Muller, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English - that’s how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([e-mail]) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([e-mail]) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don’t forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognized RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire !!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!

This week’s quiz: On 9 July, I asked you a question about an article and video written and produced by our very own Happy Ollia Horton. It was about Fatmata Binta, who had just won the prestigious 2022 Basque Culinary World Prize, which goes to, as Ollia wrote: “… chefs from around the world who are using their talent and creativity to create positive change.”  

Fatmata Binta created the Fulani Kitchen Foundation. As she told Ollia, traveling around to different communities and collecting recipes, she saw the enormous difficulties women faced. So, she created the foundation – she already has four acres of land in northern Ghana - where women can, as Ollia wrote: “… do arts and crafts and grow fonio that will be packaged up and sold back into the community.” Binta plans on using her prize money to further develop her center for women, the Fulani Kitchen Foundation.

Fatmata Binta took a while to find her calling, moving around from job to job. Her mother gave her a nickname – and that was your question. What nickname did Fatmata Binta’s mother give her? 

The answer is: “Touch and leave”.  As Ollia wrote: “Binta admits that it has taken some time to finally settle into her true calling. Her mother fondly nicknamed her “touch and leave” when she was younger because of her tendency to flit from one thing to another.

After completing international relations studies, she went to culinary school in Kenya, then spent quite a bit of time dabbling in other jobs in marketing and television, but now she is home at last.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the Bonus Question: What’s your comfort food?

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Yeami Sanday John Turay from Freetown, Sierra Leone, who is also the winner of the Bonus Question. He wrote: “You amazed me because it is the first time you have asked a question about a person in my beautiful home of Sierra Leone. My comfort food, which I would like for you to try one day, is casava leaves and rice.”

From the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Nuraiz is a lucky winner this week, as is Muhammad Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan. There’s RFI Listeners Club member Arne Timm from Harjumaa, Estonia, and last but certainly not least, RFI English listener Kalyani Basak from West Bengal, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: The theme from The Twilight Zone by Marius Constant, performed by the Monterey Radio and TV Philharmonic Orchestra; traditional music from Brittany; “Fula Flute” performed by Keme Bourema; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Tenor Madness” by Sonny Rollins, performed by the Sonny Rollins Quartet with John Coltrane.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [e-mail] 

This week’s question ... you have to listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, refer to Murali Krishnan’s article “India-Africa partnership gets a boost with investment conclave” to help you with the answer.

You have until 19 September to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 24 September podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

[e-mail]

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here.