Monday, January 30, 2012



Bon Appétit!
I am choosing to talk about food as an alternative form of storytelling because of my passion for it—not just for eating it but for making it too! The food we eat, like our apparel, friends, and attitudes communicate many things about us, including messages about—our culture, personality, emotions and identities. Food is the center of so a many social activities in our lives such as holidays, cookouts, parties, ect.  It may just be the social appetizer that premiers much of our storytelling!

Think about the attention we pay to our food in its preparation—for those who take great joy in preparing delicious dishes for family and friends. This attention to detail not only tells a story about the person making the dish—it also communicates something to the people enjoying the dish. It communicates that the culinary artisan cares about the people enjoying the dish as well as their palettes!

Our food preferences and choices are further an expression of who we are and who we identify with. Think about consumer personalities selling clothes and brand name labels, or even generic, non brand name apparel to niche markets of consumers. Our food purchases and cooking tell a similar story about our cultural identities and values—do we purchase only organic foods, gluteen free foods, vegan, or vegetarian foods? Do we cook a lot of meats, what types of meat do we like, what quality cut must our meats be?


Let’s no forget that food is more times than not the substance of which good stories or—not so good stories are shared overJ Storytelling and food are a natural match—“I recommend pairing this delectable entrée__(insert your favorite food)___ with this sweet savory story__(insert a new sweet or perhaps dry story you’ve been dying to tell)___.”  Bon Appétit!

Some cool links to websites about storytelling and food:

Storytelling and food with children: http://www.coolcooks.co.uk/main.php?page=59

Interesting blog about food and storytelling: http://studyfood.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/food-and-storytelling/

6 comments:

  1. Not to mention the stories that are shared through recipes...(i.e. my great grandmother who lived through the Great Depression used to make this recipe for her son, as an example.)

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  2. This reminds me of a Christmas cookie party I once had with some faculty friends. We ended up doing a cookie nativity but with some tweaks - there were dolphins and I think the Messiah was eating a chicken wing. It was totally a re-telling and it had as much to do with us as food authors as with the mode of food itself.

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  3. I know a couple who keeps a journal, with their cookbooks, where they record which recipe they made for which dinner guests. They also have people write comments, like a guest book. He used to be a baker & their dinners are always the right balance of gourmet & prepared with love. I think it's great that they write down the memories.

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    1. This is a fantastic idea! I'm not usually a journal person, but combining food and life on paper is wonderful!

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  4. Great point! I hadn't thought of this before, but it's true. My family keeps old cookbooks as if they were the same as old tomes of Sherlock Holmes collections, and as we cook, some story comes up about where it comes from, etc.

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  5. The best stories are told when making and eating food. Something about food makes people more willing to share and to listen. I made sugar cookie people with a cousin that I usually never talk to, and we had so much fun just working together. We also bonded in a way that we just never had before while we made them look like little emo men. In that moment, we completely understood one another.

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