On the meaning of food and eating
“Le but ultime de la science gastronomique est la recherche du bonheur” C.Petrini[The ultimate goal of gastronomical science is the search for happiness]Believe it or not, there are still people who claim that they eat only to survive and thus no matter what they cast down their stomachs and into their abdomen.I love to cook and this passion has increased especially over the past ten years. (As a matter of fact I only really started cooking once I left home and went to university). Perhaps it was my exile to the US that enhanced my engagement in the food I choose, prepare and eat.First a word about the term “food”. I have the luck to know several languages and thus can compare how we designate that thing we eat. In English, we talk about “FOOD” and commonly say, “let’s go and get some food.” and often refer to the “need to get some food or nourishment into my system (when it is not cafeine). ” when I first heard this, in Leicester in 1993, I thought about how derogatory and limited this notion was. Indeed, it does then refer to the pure biological need to get calories. “Give me anything to satisfy my hunger.”In Norwegian, we think in the same way as we commonly refer to “mat” and say “takk for maten” (thanks for the food) and “mat handelen.”In French, we cannot express that concept in the same way. Yes, we have the word “nourriture” meaning nourishment, but we would not say “I need some nourriture.” Instead, we say, “j’ai faim” (I am hungry) and other slang variant that refers to the subject such as “j’ai besoin de/ je veux manger quelque chose (I need to eat/I want to eat something). French culture then already distinguishes itself from the Anglo-Saxon one in that it does not refer to the nourishment itself but to the lack in the subject.Food and eating, (in French we also talk about “alimentation” or “nourriture”) has basically three functions: the nourishing one, the symbolic one and the hedonist one. I agree with those three and would like to add a fourth one that I would like to call political.The nourishing function is obvious: we are living organism constantly burning and replenishing energy.The symbolic function partakes of all that suggests eating as a social practice; a Christmas dinner, a birthday party or a Thanksgiving party or a dinner with friends and family all revolve around food. The nourishing act not being the main function.The hedonist function brings in the pleasure that one gets from food: hence the mix of colors and flavours, spices and presentation. Think of Sushi as being food one eats!Finally the political function and that part is getting more and more important. It is concerned with all that comes around food: where do you get your food from? Is it biological? Is it Fair Trade? Is it local or seasonal? Did it travel thousands of miles and polute before it came into your plate? Was it hurtful to animals? Humans?