A lot of interesting writing has been happening in the world of food recently, enough to get a nerdy gastronome like myself all hot and bothered. First, Michael Pollan (eat food, not too much, mostly greens…RAH! Damn you, Dilip.)wrote a massive and really interesting essay in last week’s New York Times Magazine entitled, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. This fatty paper (I do not exaggerate–this beast is 7,000 words–half of my freaking dissertation, people!) reminisces about how Pollan’s mother was influenced to cook by Julia Childs. He goes through an entire history of food television, from Julia all the way to Sandra Lee, and his research finds that as we watch more food television, we are cooking less, and the cooking we are doing is not actually cooking, but taking processed ingredients and heating them up. My favorite part was when Pollan spoke about writer Richard Wrangham and his book Catching Fire, who argued that we became who we are because we learned to cook our food. Wrangham was interviewed in the most interesting article I read in gastronomy grad school from the journal Gastronomica, so I was really stoked to see his research pop up again in more mainstream popular food writers like Pollan. Wrangham’s research basically found that our bodies evolved to be what they are today only because we discovered how to cook food. Before learning how to cook food, we ate food raw, which takes a lot of energy to chew and doesn’t give us as many nutrients. By cooking food, our bodies were able to take in more nutrients with less work, our brains got bigger, culture formed, as well as social arrangements like around the ritual of dinner. Pollan ponders “If cooking is central to human identity and culture as Wrangham believes, it stands to reason that the decline of cooking in our time would have a profound effect on modern life.? Pollan himself concludes that the mere fact we are still watching cooking shows indicates that we recognize food feeds more than just out stomachs, which is a small step in the right direction. There are some down notes, like when food marketer researcher Harry Balzer told him we cannot reverse the way we eat unless everyone starts cooking from scratch, which Balzer believes would never happen. Then another food writer, Michael Ruhlman, weighed in with his thoughts on his blog, which I always appreciate (it sucks waiting for books to come out), especially when he shares my thoughts. Ruhlman said that the cooks are out there, just look at all the food bloggers that are working at preserving the tradition of cooking and passing it on to as many people as possible. He pushes to make a distinction between cooks and foodies. According to him, foodies are people who live to eat, who follow famous chefs like celebrities and love exotic, rare food. Cooks are people who love to cook, who love to put the hard work to proudly feed a crowd, are not scared of failing and having to try again. Some people are one or the other, but many are both. We are glad our society has evolved enough to make cooking relatively easy, and there are people taking advantage of that. Here are a few particular gems from Ruhlman I enjoyed: “Foodies watch food television with their pants around their ankles and buy The French Laundry Cookbook for the pictures. Foodie is a social distinction, not a judgement.” “I?d be bummed if every Monday night I had to catch, kill, de-feather and eviscerate the chicken I wanted to roast.” “…all Julia was telling us, that it?s not that hard and the rewards are vast. Ironically, because food is so plentiful, we?ve forgotten what a joy cooking can be.” ?The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity,? Pollan writes. But in addition to the health crisis our food has there is the spiritual identity crisis we feel because we?ve stopped cooking, a disconnection to the things that matter most. This is probably why foodies emerged.” I loved that connection he made! Ruhlman goes on to explain how foodies themselves are helping our culture to preserve whats important about cooking because they recognize a need for it. Like Ruhlman, I too believe that foodies and cooks are saving the country by keeping our food traditions safe. They are just doing it through many different mediums, some that never really existed in the past. Before, the tradition of cooking was passed on through family members and the occasional tv chef or cookbook. Now, it will still be passed on through cookbooks, but also food and cooking memoirs, food blogs, and even Twitter. Thanks to smart people who recognize a need in our society to pay attention to our food problems, as well as food writing degree programs that are popping up all over the world, like the one I attended, we now have more focused food based writing appearing in mainstream publications(the likes of which we have already seen from Michael Pollan and Michael Ruhlman and the likes of which I plan on busting out in the future). All of these things prove that these traditions of cooking and the meanings that surround it can and will be carried on. I know I’m doing my part. Are you? ~LTG!
