Cultural Eatery
Until now, I have been writing about cooking, the kitchen, chefs, food and what they have, in my opinion, to do with identity, the arts and culture in general. And up to this point you, the reader, might or might not have agreed with me. But I feel the need to say that this universe […]
We eat with our eyes. That is the reason why food has always had a meaning, a social status and has been used to highlight wealth. And this also means that what we see is what we want even though we might not be hungry, or it could be poisonous. Therefore, we are told not […]
Meals can be considered to be social constructions, deeply intertwined with our identity. Whatever food we choose to prepare and consume, gives away information about ourselves: our points of views, our ideologies, and our assumptions on life. To be able to cook requires intention, a set of skills and practice. We are surrounded by images […]
In my opinion you cannot compare the experience of cooking at home against the experience of dinning out. They belong to two different universes. One is more of an event than an everyday job. The effort one puts into might be the same, but the outcome is completely different. In your kitchen you might cook […]
To start cooking you need to have the wish to prepare something tasty, the ingredients -preferably fresh and of good quality- and a bit of knowledge on how to move around a kitchen. Most importantly, depending on the type of cook you are -creative or experimental-, what you need is the guidance of a recipe. […]
A kitchen is not complete until you have the tools designed to help in the cooking process. Spoons, spatulas, pots, pans, whisks, knives, you name it, all these utensils are there to ease the actions you undertake in transforming produce into a dish fit to be consumed. It can be overwhelming to decide from all […]
In my family, there is a saying: that a good party always ends in the kitchen. This seems to be true most of the time since we tend to gather in this room. But where do we get this feeling that the kitchen is the place where important aspects of our life take place? Maybe […]
I have been thinking about the positive influence that spending time with others has on us. Food has had a way to entice social connections. For example, the bonding relationships that take place in a kitchen when cooking or allowing dialog and exchange of experiences over a served table. And this all comes together with […]
Cooking is mostly about the transformation of raw food into baked, fried, braised or steamed meals. In an imaginative way, we combine ingredients to create something tasty. This requires a good sense of seasoning, a touch of inventiveness and a little boldness. Eating cooked food is a ritual that brings together different aspects of our […]
I am sure it has happened to all of us. You are sitting at the table taking a spoon of soup. Bam! You have it immediately, this picture of your childhood, the table where your grandmother served this soulful chicken broth. It is so vivid that you can even hear her voice. For this to […]