Food Culture — Part 1 of 3
A savory investigation into why humans eat what they eat—how taste is part of civilization.
Beyond sustenance—a mini-series on the value of food to culture. Free subscribers will continue receiving post previews and trivia. Paid subscribers will receive the full articles and (re)sources. Thank you for supporting this work!
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I love food. Most of it, anyway. I don’t tuck into pâté or foie-gras, hamburgers or ultra-processed stuff (I do read labels), except for the occasional oil chips or crisps. Those I savor (one small cup) with a glass of chilled Prosecco.
It’s a challenge to eat well on a tight budget in America—I’ve been there. Where inexpensive means too many fillers, and not enough nutrition. Fresh vegetables have been my ‘go-to’ since I can remember. But I realize they’re an acquired taste for many.
In America, I discovered the joys of ethnic food. I acquired a taste for Indian and Chinese cuisine early on. These days, the only times I go out it’s for sushi. Everything else is home-cooked with ingredients often imported from Europe.
I realize I’m privileged that way. And though I’m a natural ‘baker,’ I’ve learned to enjoy the meditative aspects of cooking. Results may vary, a work in progress, as is all cooking. When it comes to the kitchen, there’s one chef at home, and it’s not me.
What about you? Are you a foodie? Do you like to explore different cuisines? There are plenty of food quizzes online if you’re in doubt about the joys of your palate. I like those that could help make positive diet changes. Try this one.
If there’s a universality in drinking, there’s definitely one with food—we have to eat, or we shrivel.
Before we tuck in, a little bit of film (and book) trivia. See if you can guess which brief descriptions match which stories and titles. (I’ll insert the key in part 2 of this series.)
A monopolistic recluse in a purple suit terrorizes a bunch of kids, their parents, and grandpa Joe while leading a corporate plant tour and singing about an ingredient.
Four friends gather at a crumbling mansion and gorge themselves to death.
A married couple turns to murder in order to fund their dream restaurant.
Three young waitresses work at a small-town pizzeria the summer after high school.
Two young persons learn who the other is at their core and then become real friends at restaurants.
Food and crime are related—you woo dates with prime tables at elite supper clubs, lay low at mom’s house while eating her pasta, and make a Sunday gravy in between drug runs.
She’s deeply in love with a man, but forbidden to marry him due to a family tradition. Instead, he marries one of her sisters, while she, forced by said tradition to take care of her mother, channels her feelings into the food she cooks.
A banquet chef with three adult daughters prepares elaborate family meals on Sundays. The family lives take dramatic turns, as the dinner table becomes the setting for the announcements of pregnancies, marriages, and other major life decisions.
In a last-ditch effort to save their restaurant, two brothers heed advice from the owner of the restaurant across the street and prepare a blowout meal sure to entice a celebrity singer to attend, thus earning the restaurant the buzz it needs to survive.
A visual and sonic feast on the beauty of food through the love of a fantastic cook, a rodent.
A story of two women who were ‘saved by food.’
Two comedians drive off to write about restaurants.
The films and books about food are so many that I had a hard time paring it down to a dozen. But here they are, in chronological order (hint.)
My disclaimer—I’m not qualified for nor providing any advice, health or otherwise, about food. But I do have strong opinions about nutrition.
Food critic Peter Wells questions1 whether the World’s 50 Best Restaurants are truly that. He says they’re ‘theatrical spectacles,’ ‘monuments to ego,’ not fine dining. If you were looking at the photos above, you may agree. They look artsy.
Too much avant-garde to win awards, not enough actual food to savor, says Wells. I have no experience of the restaurants in his examples, so I can’t say about their degree of disruption to the palate.
However, Osteria Francescana is one of the restaurants on the list. Massimo Bottura has built his reputation as a top chef among the ‘50 Best.’ Gucci and a Ferrari restaurants feature his cuisine.
Though art is part of his work, he says he’s a craftsman rather than an artist. His updates of nonna’s recipes are more than visually stunning—the combinations of flavors and textures are delicious to the palate.
Bottura believes culture is transformative.
That is how you do what you do can make a difference. He walks the talk. His work includes programs to improve the sustainability of our food system, well-being and social inclusion for the most vulnerable. Refettorios2 are projects for social change.
Tortellante3 is a venture he has a hand in. They teach autistic and Down Syndrome young adults how to make tortellini. If you’ve seen any of the kitchen quarantine episodes shot at home with his family during the lockdown, you’ll recognize his son Charlie among them.
In 2012, it was Bottura to offer a recipe that saved lives. After the earthquakes in the Emilia Romagna region, 360,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese were damaged. The work and jobs of their producers at risk.
His recipe risotto cacio e pepe used lots and lots of cheese. They shared it online and created an event around it. More than 20,000 people made the risotto, which raised awareness for the issue. The damaged wheels sold out by the end of the year.
That meant no loss of jobs, nor business closures.
In Part 1, I’m including a brief review of the history of food and meals, that of the places where we eat, and the connection with culture.
Then, in Part 2, I’ll switch more firmly onto the benefits of a balanced and nutritious diet to society, customs, and interesting experiments to test value.
Part 3 will be a historical review of how we brand, package, market, and sell a promise to make it the most appealing, with selected foods from Northern Italy and Europe—including my favorites.
Let’s dig into the history of why we eat what we eat.