When asked, somewhat accusingly, why she wrote about food and not something important, like politics or war, MFK Fisher answered the question in her trademark, lyrical style in The Art of Eating:
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one.”
We’ve posed the same question to writers we’ve interviewed and as well as to a few who were not available to take our call. Here are their answers.
“Of the genuine human universals, it’s the only one you can strike up a conversation with anybody about. ’What’s good to eat around here?’ tends to go over better than ‘Had any good sex lately?’ ”
— Matthew Amster-Burton, writer and co-host of the podcast, Spilled Milk
“The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a new star.”
– Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
“It is everlastingly funny that the proud, metaphysically ambitious mind will hush if you give it an egg.”
– Annie Dillard
“How we eat, the people we share our food with, the thousand different ways we can wake up to our senses with one small bite — it’s all part of being human. Writing a list of what you ate for breakfast may not matter that much. But sharing with me how you came to be sitting at that table, sharing that food, with those people, in that moment? That’s life. I want to know all about it.”
– Shauna Ahern, Gluten-Free Girl
“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”
– Fran Lebowitz
“Writing about food creates intimacy. Food makes it possible to tell stories that can be difficult to tell (especially family ones)”
– Anne Bramley
“Food writing may be the last safe haven for the liberal arts personality. You have to know a little about a lot to do it well. History, economics, politics, cooking, chemistry, biology, physiology, ecology, art, agriculture, You can write about anything while appearing to write about food. You can change the world. But only if you are willing to work like a stevedore and earn less than barista.”
– Molly O’Neill
” I cannot think of a subject other than food that has so many ‘spokes’ emanating from its core. The food writer has an open playing field, the opportunities are endless. Recipe are just one aspect of this field, and a pretty small aspect at that.”
– Mindy Klapper Trotta
“Food lets you give the reader a sense of pleasure, place, season, and culture in only a few words”
– Katie Boyts
“I feel powerless after I read most stories about the environment and politics and the economy, but when these subjects are framed by food, they still touch a raw nerve, but they can leave me energized and convinced that I can make a significant contribution.”
– Simona Carini
Image Source: Robert Moore Kulicke (1924-December 14, 2007)
Touch a star-fruit to see what the skin is like, smell the clementine, listen to the talkers on the train, watch the sunrise again and again. Food writing is all about the senses and the more you hone yours, the stronger your work will be.–Monica Bhide
A young friend had recently come back from a trip to outer Mongolia and stayed with a family in their yurt for a week. I stopped by for coffee and had a slew of questions for her about what they ate and how they prepared it, and she explained all about yaks and their milk and the butter tea and where they got vegetables, which led to a discussion of why they did what they do. Finally her mother said “Is that all you can ask about is the food??” I felt somewhat embarrassed for a minute because I felt I had been too centered on what I wanted to know instead of what she had experienced. But regaining my composure I said “Well, if you understand what they eat and why, you can learn a whole lot about their entire culture.” It works better for me than seeing a peoples art!