2019 History Hello, I’m Shreya and I’m a History finalist. I hope to travel across North America and gain an understanding of the various culinary cultures across different regions. While completing research for my undergraduate thesis, I came across the work of Frances Trollope, whose ‘Domestic Manners of the Americans’ documents her observations while she travels across Western America in the 1830s. I hope to follow her route as closely as possible, writing a similar account nearly two hundred years later. Food never fails to bring people together, and I hope that this project will be a great opportunity to have some really interesting conversations with people in the industry. Having worked as a trainee chef in a restaurant, and completed a course at the Cordon Bleu so I hope to explore my interests in food and the communities shaped by restaurants further through this project. Community building has been something I’ve been very passionate about during my time at university as well. I have been part of the JCR Committee for two years, taking on the role of JCR President during the pandemic. I have also really enjoyed being a part of the Charity Musical each year and am looking forward to meeting the Balliol community across North America this summer.