Food Blog

This excellent article in The Guardian, Meals make us human echoes Matthew’s comment on the last post “i have to admit i find myself torn when it comes to food: part of me wants to consider it a mere refueling exercise, part of me wants to rekindle the part of me that led me to become a chef on the island of mallorca when i was in my twenties….in which every meal is an act that reaffirms life and pleasure and happiness and solidifying relationships with those who share the food and time. these days, in the end, i usually just have an Eggo and eat it on the drive to work. someone once said that tragedy lay not in great drama, but in the breaking of a shoelace. indeed.”

From the Guardian article:

“Mealtimes are our oldest rituals. The companionable effects of eating together help to make us human. The little links which bind households together are forged at the table. The stability of our homes probably depends more on regular mealtimes than on sexual fidelity or filial piety. Now it is in danger. Food is being desocialised. The demise of mealtimes means unstructured days and undisciplined appetites…

Microwaves erode society. In these machines, eaters can heat up whatever ready-mades are to hand. No reference to community of taste needs to be made. No mummy or daddy can arbitrate for a whole family. No one in a household has to defer to anyone else. This new way of cooking reverses the cooking revolution which made eating sociable, and threatens to return us to a presocial phase of evolution. “