Food innovator Gilava Pour shares a guest post on how food can help change attitudes.
The term “social cohesion” has been everywhere lately. It’s in the news, in opinion pieces, and across government conversations. Everyone agrees it matters, but no one seems to agree on what it actually looks like.
Most of the discussion sits at a high level. Policy, national identity, frameworks. But it feels like we’re overcomplicating something that actually happens in much simpler ways.
I run a food brand called Exotic Bazaar. We make Middle Eastern meal bases for people who want something different for dinner but don’t know where to start.
And what we’re seeing is straightforward.
A lot of our customers have never cooked Middle Eastern food before. For some of them, their only exposure to the region has been through the news.
Now they’re cooking dishes from that same region at home. They’re eating it with their families, talking about it, and saving it as something they’ll cook again.
Not because they’re trying to learn about a culture. Not because they’re trying to be open minded. Just because it tasted good.
But that’s exactly where something shifts.
Because that’s not how we usually think about changing perceptions. We assume it happens through conversation, education, or big moments. From what I’m seeing, it’s much smaller than that. It’s repetition. It’s familiarity. It’s doing something enough times that it stops feeling foreign.
You don’t need to convince someone to be interested in a culture if they already enjoy it in their own life. That’s a very different starting point.
There’s a lot of talk right now about division, mistrust, and people feeling disconnected. Some of that is real. But at the same time, there are small, quiet moments happening every day that don’t get talked about.
Someone trying a dish they’ve never had before. A family adding it into their regular meals. A conversation that starts with “this is actually really good.”
That’s it.
Nothing dramatic, but it adds up.
I didn’t start Exotic Bazaar to play a role in social cohesion. I just wanted to make the food I grew up with easier for people to cook. But it’s made me realise that this is where a lot of real connection actually starts.
Not at a national level. At a personal one.
We can keep having big conversations about what kind of country we want to be. But it’s worth paying attention to what’s already happening in people’s homes.
Because that’s where unfamiliar cultures stop being “other” and start becoming part of everyday life.
* Gilava Pour spent over 15 years of working as an IT professional in the finance sector before founding Ballarat-based Exotic Bazaar to share Persian and Middle Eastern food culture. See https://www.exoticbazaar.com.au/
Not because they’re trying to learn about a culture. Not because they’re trying to be open minded. Just because it tasted good.
But that’s exactly where something shifts.
Because that’s not how we usually think about changing perceptions. We assume it happens through conversation, education, or big moments. From what I’m seeing, it’s much smaller than that. It’s repetition. It’s familiarity. It’s doing something enough times that it stops feeling foreign.
You don’t need to convince someone to be interested in a culture if they already enjoy it in their own life. That’s a very different starting point.
There’s a lot of talk right now about division, mistrust, and people feeling disconnected. Some of that is real. But at the same time, there are small, quiet moments happening every day that don’t get talked about.
Someone trying a dish they’ve never had before. A family adding it into their regular meals. A conversation that starts with “this is actually really good.”
That’s it.
Nothing dramatic, but it adds up.
I didn’t start Exotic Bazaar to play a role in social cohesion. I just wanted to make the food I grew up with easier for people to cook. But it’s made me realise that this is where a lot of real connection actually starts.
Not at a national level. At a personal one.
We can keep having big conversations about what kind of country we want to be. But it’s worth paying attention to what’s already happening in people’s homes.
Because that’s where unfamiliar cultures stop being “other” and start becoming part of everyday life.
* Gilava Pour spent over 15 years of working as an IT professional in the finance sector before founding Ballarat-based Exotic Bazaar to share Persian and Middle Eastern food culture. See https://www.exoticbazaar.com.au/
