University of Oxford Hosts Tempe-making Workshop

The Indonesian Students Association at the University of Oxford, UK, hosted a tempe (fermented soybean)-making workshop on Sunday in collaboration with the Indonesian Tempe Movement (ITM).

The association’s chairman, Sandoko Kosen, told Antara news agency on Tuesday that the workshop aimed to increase public awareness of tempe, an authentic Indonesian food.

Tempe was chosen because it is a delicious and healthy food, environmentally friendly and is seen as a part of local cultures. These features give the soy superfood unique potential in the international food, health, art and business sectors.

By learning the tempe-making process, Sandoko hoped the attendees would have a better understanding of the traditional food and be inspired to open a tempe-related business.

The workshop idea came from ITM’s founder Amadeus Driando Ahnan-Winarno, a student of the food science graduate program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States. The event was part of ITM’s activities, which included an international conference, tempe book publication and registering tempe as a UNESCO intangible heritage.