A true love of food isn’t born through watching culinary television programs, or cooking with a grandmother during the holidays. It doesn’t stem from enjoying eating, or hosting parties. A true love of food in my eyes is defined as a lifelong relationship with food in numerous capacities. A relationship filled with all of the discovery, strife, forgiveness, and understanding one might find in a committed human affair. All of which are underlined by a deep current of simultaneously inquisitive and euphoric obsession. Without these qualities, one can expect their relationship to food to remain as thin and tasteless as a Sunday morning communion wafer. I describe a superficial connection to food in this particularly blunt fashion because I care about food in such an intimate way. Though my words may imply some sort of exclusionary zealotry regarding food, they are not meant to convey that an interest in food is a bad thing. Rather, I simply want to express the difference between a hobby and a genuine passion. Growing up as a home-schooled child presented unique challenges and opportunities. Primary among these challenges was a lack of access to the extracurricular activities presented to youth in a public or private education setting. Music, athletics, performing and visual arts always seemed just out of reasonable reach. This is not to say that I didn’t have access to such activities. Rather, they simply required an additional input of effort that seemed just out of the realm of what my perpetually busy parents could viably manage. Instead, I took to activities that could be enjoyed at home. Eating became a source of comfort and pleasure for me. I can distinctly recall eyeing the large wrought iron clock over the mantle of our firep... ... middle of paper ... ...at requires precise knowledge and objectivity. Once I knew I was passionate about food in a way that most others couldn’t understand, I became determined to become an absolute food guru. Gurus are leaders in their fields, and provide guidance on a particular subject. Food is a uniquely multifaceted passion to have, and in order to be a food guru one must understand culinary history, art, science, and theory. After completing my culinary arts training in 2012, I decided to pursue science as the next logical step in my quest to gain complete understanding of food. Now, as a senior student of Culinology® at SMSU, I’ve begun considering where I would like to study food theory at the master level following my graduation. Ultimately, I want to reach the apex of food understanding, and have the ability to confidently profess anything about food to anyone willing to listen.
“Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating,” is an article written by Mary Maxfield in response or reaction to Michael Pollan’s “Escape from the Western Diet”. Michael Pollan tried to enlighten the readers about what they should eat or not in order to stay healthy by offering and proposing a simple theory: “the elimination of processed foods” (443).
In the narrative “Food Is Good” author Anthony Bourdain humorously details the beginning of his journey with food. Bourdain uses lively dialogue with an acerbic style that sets his writing apart from the norm. His story began during his childhood and told of the memories that reverberated into his adulthood, and consequently changed his life forever. Bourdain begins by detailing his first epiphany with food while on a cruise ship traveling to France. His first food experience was with Vichyssoise, a soup served cold.
Pollan states that food is not just a necessity to survive, it has a greater meaning to life. Pollan explains how food can cause us happiness and health by connecting us to our family and culture. Warren Belasco, in “Why Study Food”, supports Pollan’s idea that food is something social and cultural. In Belasco’s description of a positive social encounter food is included, whether it involves a coffee date with a colleague or a dinner date with a loved one. Belasco states that food forms our identity and brings our society together.
Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the carbohydrates and calories that maintain any culture. Food offers a dynamic cross-section of man's tendencies. "Nourishment, a basic biological need," argues anthropologist Sidney Mintz, "becomes something else because we humans transform it symbolically into a system of meaning for much more than itself" (7). By examining food consumption and preparation, much is discoverd regarding the intricacies of culture. The preparation and consumption of food in Puritan society are reflected in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Rowlandson's view of food and admissions of hunger in the infancy of her captivity cast a revealing light upon the roots of her conceptions and ideas about food and, more generally, about her culture's conceptions and ideas about food. As the conflict between her soul and her stomach raged over food, Rowlandson's attitudes toward the Native Americans' preparation and consumption of food reflect the socialization of the Puritans to believe that every meal ...
Rather, it is about exploring the ‘possibility of finding nourishment and sustenance in a hybrid cultural/culinary identity’ through re-creating a family ritual that connects ‘cultural and the culinary’ (Beauregard 59) and sets the stage for a changed relationship between Muriel, her mother and Naoe.
... Nestle’s quote, Bittman makes his editorial plea to ethos, by proposing proof that a woman of reliable mental power of this issue come to an agreement with Bittman's thesis statement. Bittman also develops pathos in this article because he grabs a widely held matter that to many individuals is elaborate with: "...giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together.” (Mark Bittman) Bittman gives the reader the actions to think about the last time they had a family dinner and further imposes how these family dinners are altogether important for family time. Therefore, Bittman did a magnificent job in pointing into the morals of his targeted audience and developing a critical point of view about fast food to his intended audience leaving them with a thought on less fast food and more home prepared meals.
This triumphant history is simmering beneath a complicated mixture of endearing and polarizing perspectives. As for many, these are dishes that celebrate a heritage of culinary genius, community-building, and resourcefulness. However, there are many who reach the opposite conclusion and criticize soul food as an exceedingly unhealthy cuisine that needs a warning label, or slave food that is unworthy of celebration (Miller,
In The Hungry Soul we find an interesting blend of subjects, methods, and traditions. This book is a fascinating exploration of the cultural and natural act of eating. Kass intensely reveals how the various aspects of this phenomenon, restrictions, customs, and rituals surrounding it, relate to collective and philosophical truths about the human being and its deepest pleasures. Kass argues throughout the book that eating (dining) is something that can either cultivate us or moralize us. My question is, does Kass succeed in arguing for the fact that eating is something that can moralize us as human beings? Although I agree with some of the things that Kass discussed in the book, in this paper I will argue mainly against some of his claims.
All in all, this book is a great read for those seeking to learn more about food and how it relates to all aspects of life and history as well as find that extra push in taking the initiative in improving one’s eating habits and lifestyle. It serves as an easy to follow introduction into a healthy relationship with food including with simple guidelines that are not too forceful or complex to understand.
Planck, Nina. "I Am Nursed on the Perfect Food." Real Food: What to Eat and Why. New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2007. 39-44. Print.
In Michael Pollan’s “The End of Cooking” shares the message of what we are losing something important in this day and age because of all our pre-made and processed foods. This can be compared with Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, What Am I?” and her argument that food is part of one’s own identity. By using the examples from these two texts you can analyze the state of food and culture in the United States today. All of the processed and pre-made foods are causing people all across America to lose their sense of Culture. We no longer know what it’s like to make one of our cultures specialty dishes from scratch which can help people identify with their culture. This process helped newer generations see what it was like for those before them to cook on a daily basis and could help them identify your sense of culture.
With every experience that we have with food, a memory is created. Our experiences with food begin when we are infants. The memories can be traumatic or they can be pleasant, but they will affect the way we think, act, and shape our ideas about food in the future. Just like our language, the clothes we wear on a daily basis, our individual customs, and the values and beliefs that we have, food is important in constructing our overall identity too. If the way a person speaks, dresses, and thinks can reveal a lot about who they are as individuals, then doesn't food also define us? Everything that revolves around our food from what we choose to eat and how our food is obtained and prepared to when and how we eat tells us so much about
In the writing “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” Geeta Kothari describes the differences in the American and Indian cultures through her unique description of the food differences. As a little Indian-American girl, Kothari curiously wanted to eat what of kids her age ate, tuna salad sandwich, hot dogs, and foods of such nature. Kothari describes her first encounter with a can of tuna fish as it looks “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” (947). As Kothari ages, it becomes clear that she sees American food much the way her parents saw it- “repugnant… meat byproducts… glued together by chemicals and fat” (947). Even though Kothari describes American food as strange, disgusting, and foreign; it was also “infidelity” to eat it (951).
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
In a traditional school, much time is wasted. The students need time to change classes, get out their homework, pass out papers, etc. Even getting to school is a long trek for some students. In a home schooling setting, these trivial tasks are greatly reduced. For example, the first day of school in a public or private traditional school normally means a lot of paperwork and administrative tasks. Students spend most of the day getting lockers and filling out emergency cards so t...