Food Self and Society, Essay Example

Eating and preparing a meal is a very conscience effort and is not just an ordinary task to be taken in stride like a simple choice of a make-up or a choice of a simple cola at a McDonald’s fast store. It entails preparing the food through the use of quantitative and qualitative thought and creativity if you want the meal to be a special one. Many professional and amateur chefs but their hearts and souls into preparing a meal because they either want to invite their friends over to enjoy their creation or they want to make money with their creation.

My first conscious meal was that of a child when my mother created some macaroni and cheese for me at the age of only four. I thought that meal was the tastiest meal and the most heart loving meal ever in my life because the noodles looked great and mom had taken the time to make it for me.  I asked for seconds and gobbled that portion down also. My tummy was full after that. Mom even offered her special lemon pie which I certainly took a taste of too but was not able to finish due to overeating on the macaroni and cheese.

Food rituals growing up in my home were to eat as much as you can, ha ha! Really, we all sat down at the dinner table together as a family after my father got off of work and mom prepared three course meals consisting of a great meat, a carbohydrate and a wonderful vegetable and a wonderful dessert. I could not ask for anything better. My stomach was full and we all sat around the table and had chit chat about how mom and dad’s day was and dad would ask how school went and if we needed anything for the next day. We were a real family and the food that mom prepared made it a wonderful blessing.

I have not really had a traumatic memory of food. I have been dissatisfied with food though especially comparing food to my mother’s home cooking food. Eating at fast food restaurants has displeased me due to the high levels of grease and high caloric intake present in them but unfortunately as I grew up I did not have time to run to mom and dad’s to eat and to prepare my own meals. Sometimes TV dinners had to suffice.

I discovered as a young child food was not only important to taste, to keep me healthy and to keep social skills necessary for the family. As I grew up I realized that mom struggled hard to make those meals for us and I missed them. I wished I had someone close to me to make them for me. I always appreciated the good cooking mom offered to us.

Mom’s favorite recipe was roast and potatoes au jus with green peas made with a southern roux. She spent over four hours preparing this wonderful meal for our family. It was succulent by taste and mouth watering. The au jus gravy was home made by the drippings of the slow cooked either pork or beef roast and the young June peas came to life with the roux made from olive oil and flour. The roux gave the peas beautiful brown gravy to spread over nice rice.

These memories stand out in my mind because I am older now and I remember the comrade they brought to our family. Food is not just a meal but a means to bring a family together if prepared well and eaten together with value and poise. My family thoroughly believed as a Christian family to use food as a means to speak about life and improve the family. Both my mother and father shared equal responsibility in their role as such. Whether a person is cooking food to strengthen the bonds and unity of a family or using the amateur lessons to promote a career in culinary science there is a love of cooking that runs deep within a person.

Many women and men learn to cook from their mothers and fathers or grandmothers and grandfathers and these wonderful traditions are passed down from generation to generation, respectively. This is what distinguishes good cooking from great cooking! Every geographic areas has their different way of cooking dishes and often it is mentioned some regions such as the south use better spices than other regions such as the north. This can be debated because we are only accustomed to what we are used to in life.

Cooking is an art that is learned and loved and can be mastered with love, attention and practice. It is up to the individual to take the initiative to want to do so.