Is Food The New Fashion?

Been a while since I shared some thoughts on my own blog, but I had a very needed respite from some things, but I'm back and ready to type.  I needed a break from the Penn State travesty, The Republican Party, life changes for 2012 and career woes.  Hell I just needed a media break from all the injustices in the world! So now that I'm recharged, I'm ready to type and type I will.

Anyhoo, as we welcome Spring into our lives and start planting seeds for this year's harvest I've been thinking a lot lately about how food has become a new fashion trend and people who before couldn't tell the difference between brie and gouda are these new epicurian food snobs.  The Food Network, The Cooking Channel, ABC's The Chew.  I'm like, where did all this food coverage come from?  And more curiously, why?

I'm a proud member of a women-led, organic, community farm in the South Bronx called La Finca Del Sur.  I have to confess to being a life-long foodie (hell, my favorite movie is "Like Water For Chocolate"), and as a native New Yorker I grew up eating all kinds of yummy foods from all over the world.  In my home there were no fancy culinary concoctions created to excite the palate, but the diet I grew up on was provided by the good home cooking skills of my parents and 4 older sisters.  There were hot meals cooked daily with lots of fresh vegetables, beans, and poultry.  But there was also a tin of lard for deep frying and fried bologna sandwiches on a Saturday afternoon along with an ice-cold Pepsi.  Today,  much of what I ate then, growing up in my working class household, I would never eat today, i.e. a fried bologna sandwich.  And although I still appreciate the food values I grew up with that nourished me, I have just simply broadened my palette and experiment with all kinds of spices and recipes that I would never have seen in my younger years.  For instance, today I cook with fresh basil, tomatillos, cilantro and jalapeno peppers (all compliments of La Finca), that were never in my mother's kitchen.  She can't stand the smell of garlic, so I never even smelled fresh garlic until I was in my twenties.  Now I cook with it almost everyday for it's health properties and rich flavor. 

I enjoy cooking and do so most of the time.  It's not in my DNA to dine out or grab takeout everyday.  And what the hell-- it's too costly.  Even in college I cooked a lot in my dorm room on a hot plate (illegaly I might add) rather than eat what was prepared in the cafeteria.  And I don't mean Oodles of Noodles either.  Not that the dining hall food was bad, but I just liked my fried steak with Rice-A-Roni and spinach better than what they offered.  So that being stated, I like to eat and I like to cook. One of my favorite side dishes is carrot soufle which I learned to make just 2 years ago.  Now its one of my, and my guests, favorite sides.  I like to learn new things in the kitchen and remix old recipes and appreciate the taste of fresh food.  And after a brief illnes I learned to appreciate the medicinal value our food offers.  Food heals our bodies and is a global expression of love and affection. But it feels like something else is going on today around food.  People are taking things just a little too seriously, to me anyway.  Recently, a little old lady who's a food critic gave The Olive Garden a great review and was chided heavily by highly emotional food bloggers who felt that that was gauche.  The notion that a common chain restaurant, with more or less low priced food, got a favorable review was an insult and these food nuts went on the attack.  Then you have people doing email and text chains in cities like Los Angeles and NYC about food trucks selling some "hot" new food and people (mostly twenty somethings) all start traveling and lining up to buy some shit made on a food truck (Great niche marketing). 

It's like food has become one more thing to keep people separated.  There's this food snobbery spreading like wildfire and it's not doing much to bring people together around a universal human need-- to eat.  Not that food snobbery is new, the rich who could afford to eat at high priced restaurants make sure that the food stays high priced to keep "regular" people away from where their precious behinds sit and eat a meal.  I've heard people drop the names of dishes like they're dropping the names of VIPs or celebrities just to impress or create envy in others.  Maybe this is just a sign of the times, the natural shift with everything else in society, the yuppification of everything we consume, live and love.  NYC used to be a working class, concrete jungle of a town.  Now, it's lattes, burger bars and who can get a slice of pizza anymore? Not to mention made by an Italian or Sicilian-American.  And that's another thing--authenticity is done.  Even the job titles for people in the food industry have changed, like what the hell is a barista?  Isn't that just a waitress or waiter in a well priced coffee bar.  I even saw an online job ad for a "food designer" which basically amounted to someone who stages and takes pictures of beautifully plated dishes.  Like, really? 

There ends up being this world where people live in food deserts and others are paying good money at Whole Foods talking about the virtues of eating whole, fresh food.  As if my grandmother and mother never ate that way and they just discovered something new, and we should all be eating this way if only the rest of us were as lucky as they are.

I think what will cure all this foolishness is to get people back in the kitchen.  Cooking is the equalizer.  That means getting the kids to cut, chop and snap and getting men/husbands to pitch in helps us all to connect to our food before it comes to us all appetizing and hot on the plate.  People will need more fresh produce and pay more attention to what's in their ground beef and we all know the market always responds to consumer demands. And ladies, having deft skills in the kitchen is never a bad thing.  It shows that you can take care of yourself and make a healthy, righteous meal and shows a man that you can cook and nourish his offspring should you both decide to connect.  Never have I heard so many young women brag about the fact that they can't cook.  Really, we make time to do the things we want to do.  If we made cooking a part of our busy lives there are ways to get it in with planning and organization. 

I don't think food should be treated like the new Louboutin shoes.  Food and the hands that pick our produce and grind our meat are all valuable.  It should be an American right for healthy food in our schools and in our supermarkets.  It shouldn't be a new tool for elitism and separation: we're segrated enough by education, vocation, location, gender and race. We shouldn't use food to feel superior over the next one.  I just wanna know where I can get a real slice of pizza on the island of Manhattan.