By COURTNEY HO
ASSISTANT WEB EDITOR
Everyone was there – the loud chatter, the waves of laughter, the widened smiles. At that single moment, I remember thinking, “So, this is life.”
That moment is one of the earliest memories I can recall from my youth and is a brief memory of a simple family dinner. At that moment, I distinctly remember looking around the room and being overcome with happiness and love. It was at that moment when I realized the profundity of food and its significance.
I did not start writing about food because I had extensive knowledge of culinary arts — I started writing about food because I genuinely appreciated every piece of food I ever received, and I wanted to learn more about food as an art form and as a cornerstone of life.
In my short lifetime, I have learned just as much about life and humanity through food as I have from experiencing life itself, and even as much as reading The Brothers Karamazov. For instance, the only times I’ve ever cooked and baked well were when I handled the ingredients with respect, was patient with the process, and kept in mind the love I had for the people I was cooking or baking for.
It’s all about taking separate pieces, creatively thinking about them in different ways and bringing them together in harmony. When I make a lemon tart for my family, I refuse to carelessly take a box of cake mix, add some oil and water and call it a day. It takes hours of labor to hand knead the dough, watch the tart and craft the filling in order to make the perfect lemon tart. I go the extra mile because I care about the people I serve, and I genuinely want others to experience a sense of happiness when they consume it.
The act of creating and consuming food is an overwhelmingly visceral and intimate practice. In order to craft a dish, you have to carefully handle and respect your ingredients. When you consume a dish, you use a majority of your senses to experience it and ultimately take it into your body. There are only a few things in life that have the possibility to even slightly reflect such an emotional and personal experience. I believe the significance of food goes beyond the basic human need of consumption. Food, at its core, is about love, patience and understanding. Food has the ability to bring people together — an ability that should not be taken lightly. In a world that can often be disjointed and hateful, the one thing that people of all cultures have in common is a love for food.
Everything you consume has a story behind it, so as a form of respect for the ingredients and the chef who put them together, you should try to recognize the intimate and emotional care that is put into every dish that you receive (whether it be at home or at a restaurant). Just as you should strive to love and understand others, you should try to understand and respect food as an extension of other people, their history and their life.
Once you begin to experience food, rather than just see and consume it, a whole new paradigm will open up in your life. Food has the ability to bring people together — and thus, change the world. Maybe if everyone begins to experience food, everyone will also begin to try to understand each other.
“So, this is life.”
Note from the Author: This is my last and final article for “The Ram.” Even though this is a “From the Desk” article, I have personally titled this “My Final Words: Why I Write About Food.” I have lived happily as a consistent “Dining Out” writer for the past three years, and I want to thank the staff at “The Ram” for the wonderful experience – namely, all Culture Editors and copy writers who had to edit my frequent use of inappropriate language. I will continue to think about, obsess over, cook, and learn about food for the rest of my life, and I hope my articles have convinced at least one person to open their mind and think about food in a different way. Keep eating!
