500 words-
Amanda Gorham
Professor Miller
ENG 110 H-5
What does food really mean?
Hundreds of years ago our ancestors had one way of getting the food they needed to survive, hunting. There was no grocery store down the road they could go to and grab what they needed to feed their tribes and families, but it wasn’t until the invention of fire and cooking the animals that we caught did our transformation of who we are today began. In Michael Pollan’s essay “Out of the Kitchen, On to the Couch” writer James Boswell supported this idea by stating “no beast is a cook” along with him Claude Levi-Strauss found that many other cultures see cooking as a symbolic way of distinguishing ourselves from the animals. Today as technology continues to advance our lives continue to get easier and easier and that includes eating, today with a click of a few buttons on our phones we can have everything we need at our door step without leaving the house. Not everyone today enjoys just having the food ready to go in front of them. Eating shouldn’t just be about how fast you can get something or how expensive a meal is but about the memories a meal can bring for you and the person wo makes the dish so special.
As generations change so do the ways of cooking in the different households all around the world, as the TV networks grow in size people have less of a need for the cook books and they usually get tossed or shoved into a cabinet somewhere until they are needed. But it was usually those recipes that got crammed away in a book somewhere that were passed down from generation to generation. Steven Rife offers his own view point of a family recipe that was passed down by sharing the story of his Grandmother’s famous pasta dinners. In his own Food for thought essay Rife talks about how growing up in his family every Sunday his whole family would get together stating “Every Sunday around 5 o’clock my entire family would get together at my grandma’s house for a big pasta dinner. All of my uncles, aunts, and cousins would come. It was great to have the family together every week. We would always share so many laughs. It seemed like the family used that time to unwind from the stressful week that had just passed.” (Rife).
When I was growing up as well my family would meet and my grandparent’s house for a big lunch, a tradition that I have come to miss as time passes. My family did not wish to stop the tradition but after my grandfather passed it slowly became a memory, one we all loved. In his own essay in the first passage on the first page Pollan shares that he too had special meals for certain days of the week. Pollan remembers that “Some of the more ambitious dishes, like the duck or the mousse, were pointed toward weekend company, and a few of the others—including the boeuf bourguignon, which I especially loved—actually made it into heavy weeknight rotation.” (Pollan 1).
800 words-
What does food really mean?
Hundreds of years ago our ancestors had one way of getting the food they needed to survive, hunting. There was no grocery store down the road they could go to and grab what they needed to feed their tribes and families, but it wasn’t until the invention of fire and cooking the animals that we caught did our transformation of who we are today began. In Michael Pollan’s essay “Out of the Kitchen, On to the Couch” writer James Boswell supported this idea by stating “no beast is a cook” along with him Claude Levi-Strauss found that many other cultures see cooking as a symbolic way of distinguishing ourselves from the animals. Today as technology continues to advance our lives continue to get easier and easier and that includes eating, today with a click of a few buttons on our phones we can have everything we need at our door step without leaving the house. Not everyone today enjoys just having the food ready to go in front of them. Eating shouldn’t just be about how fast you can get something or how expensive a meal is but about the memories a meal can bring for you and the person wo makes the dish so special.
As generations change so do the ways of cooking in the different households all around the world, as the TV networks grow in size people have less of a need for the cook books and they usually get tossed or shoved into a cabinet somewhere until they are needed. But it was usually those recipes that got crammed away in a book somewhere that were passed down from generation to generation. Steven Rife offers his own view point of a family recipe that was passed down by sharing the story of his Grandmother’s famous pasta dinners. In his own Food for thought essay Rife talks about how growing up in his family every Sunday his whole family would get together stating “Every Sunday around 5 o’clock my entire family would get together at my grandma’s house for a big pasta dinner. All of my uncles, aunts, and cousins would come. It was great to have the family together every week. We would always share so many laughs. It seemed like the family used that time to unwind from the stressful week that had just passed.” (Rife).
When I was growing up as well my family would meet and my grandparent’s house for a big lunch, a tradition that I have come to miss as time passes. My family did not wish to stop the tradition but after my grandfather passed it slowly became a memory, one we all loved. In his own essay in the first passage on the first page Pollan shares that he too had special meals for certain days of the week. Pollan remembers that “Some of the more ambitious dishes, like the duck or the mousse, were pointed toward weekend company, and a few of the others—including the boeuf bourguignon, which I especially loved—actually made it into heavy weeknight rotation.” (Pollan 1).
Today I feel you hear less of families getting together to share a big meal together, unless its on a holiday and even then everyone’s lives have gotten “too busy” to sit down and share a meal as Rife added in his essay when he asked his grandmother why they never did Sunday meals anymore and her response was “we stopped having the dinners because everyone is growing up and it is so hard to find the time to get the whole family together on a Sunday night.” (Rife) As times go on and children grow up it becomes harder for families to find time together as everyone’s schedule’s become busier and busier family moments like this may become lost in the mist of their lives. To have a time where your family can all get together and forget the stresses of their lives over a meal we all can enjoy, is something I will cherish for the rest of my life, and hopefully one day continue the tradition for myself.
Steven and myself aren’t the only people who themselves have experienced something like this, in her own Food for Thought essay Brooke Parks shares that her favorite meal is not her favorite just because she enjoys the taste, she states in her essay that she also enjoys the meal because “It provides me a chance to sit down and talk to my family, which can be hard during the chaos of everyday.” (Parks). For many people being able to sit down with their families mean more than the actual meal itself, time around a dinner table becomes harder and harder for families to squeeze into their schedules so when the time finally presents itself it is cherished by those spending it together.
1000 words-
What does food really mean?
Hundreds of years ago our ancestors had one way of getting the food they needed to survive, hunting. There was no grocery store down the road they could go to and grab what they needed to feed their tribes and families, but it wasn’t until the invention of fire and cooking the animals that we caught did our transformation of who we are today began. In Michael Pollan’s essay “Out of the Kitchen, On to the Couch” writer James Boswell supported this idea by stating “no beast is a cook” along with him Claude Levi-Strauss found that many other cultures see cooking as a symbolic way of distinguishing ourselves from the animals. Today as technology continues to advance our lives continue to get easier and easier and that includes eating, today with a click of a few buttons on our phones we can have everything we need at our door step without leaving the house. By taking away the cooking that has become part of our everyday lives we have lost a part of our culture and with it, a part of what makes us human. Some people today enjoy just having the food ready to go in front of them. Eating shouldn’t just be about how fast you can get something or how expensive a meal is but about the memories a meal can bring for you and the person wo makes the dish so special.
Steven Rife offers his own view point of a family recipe that was passed down by sharing the story of his Grandmother’s famous pasta dinners. In his own Food for thought essay Rife talks about how growing up in his family every Sunday his whole family would get together stating “Every Sunday around 5 o’clock my entire family would get together at my grandma’s house for a big pasta dinner. All of my uncles, aunts, and cousins would come. It was great to have the family together every week. We would always share so many laughs. It seemed like the family used that time to unwind from the stressful week that had just passed.” (Rife). Though when his family would gather together he was only a young boy, the dinners would make a lasting impact on his life. It’s times like these that make us human and stand out from every other animal on the planet if we just ate the animal and the ate it and moved on, there would be nothing that made us stand out. It was the tradition of cooking the animals and eating them around a fire or table with all those that you loved that has continued to differentiate from the “beasts”. Rife’s family tradition was just one example of families getting together all around the world to share a meal and laughs and every family’s tradition varies on their beliefs and culture but the idea behind it is the same. When I was growing up as well my family would meet and my grandparent’s house for a big lunch, a tradition that I have come to miss as time passes. My family did not wish to stop the tradition but after my grandfather passed it slowly became a memory, one we all loved. In his own essay in the first passage on the first page Pollan shares that he too had special meals for certain days of the week. Pollan remembers that “Some of the more ambitious dishes, like the duck or the mousse, were pointed toward weekend company, and a few of the others—including the boeuf bourguignon, which I especially loved—actually made it into heavy weeknight rotation.” (Pollan 1). When both my parents and Pollan growing up like Pollan’s mother my grandmothers would make certain meals depending on the day of the week and save the “bigger” meals for the weeks or Sundays after church. Today I feel that there are a few meals that are saved for special occasions or guests but for the most part meals are based on how much time they have and what they can squeeze into the weekly routines. As generations continue to change and grow the traditions and culture they grew up with change with them.
As generations change so do the ways of cooking in the different households all around the world, as the TV networks grow in size people have less of a need for the cook books and they usually get tossed or shoved into a cabinet somewhere until they are needed. But it was usually those recipes that got crammed away in a book somewhere that were passed down from generation to generation. Today I feel you hear less of families getting together to share a big meal together, unless its on a holiday and even then everyone’s lives have gotten “too busy” to sit down and share a meal as Rife added in his essay when he asked his grandmother why they never did Sunday meals anymore and her response was “we stopped having the dinners because everyone is growing up and it is so hard to find the time to get the whole family together on a Sunday night.” (Rife) As times go on and children grow up it becomes harder for families to find time together as everyone’s schedule’s become busier and busier family moments like this may become lost in the mist of their lives. To have a time where your family can all get together and forget the stresses of their lives over a meal we all can enjoy, is something I will cherish for the rest of my life, and hopefully one day continue the tradition for myself.
Steven and myself aren’t the only people who themselves have experienced something like this, in her own Food for Thought essay Brooke Parks shares that her favorite meal is not her favorite just because she enjoys the taste, she states in her essay that she also enjoys the meal because “It provides me a chance to sit down and talk to my family, which can be hard during the chaos of everyday.” (Parks). For many people being able to sit down with their families mean more than the actual meal itself, time around a dinner table becomes harder and harder for families to squeeze into their schedules so when the time finally presents itself it is cherished by those spending it together.
