Food Culture: Course Analysis

We come together for anything. Traditionally meals were patterned after our Spanish customs, a big breakfast a large midday meal and a modest supper. My family always preferred home cooked meals. We always based are food around meat products, pork, chicken and

In an article written by Amy S. Choi entitled, “What Americans can Learn From Other Food Cultures,” Choi discusses food in ways that pertain to ones culture. Today, our younger generation has become less thankful for simple, traditional foods and more wanting of foods prepared in less traditional ways, almost as if, “the more outlandish the better.” Choi mentioned in her article that, “those slightly younger have been the beneficiaries of the restaurant culture exploding in Shanghai” (Choi, Amy. “What Americans Can Learn From Other Food Cultures.” Ideastedcom. 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 17 June 2015) being from America I agree with her statement. Food in many cultures has become a status symbol; I believe that dining in expensive restaurants that serve

  My immediate family built the basis for my knowledge of food with the atmosphere they created by gathering different descendants of my family to indulge on the cuisine of our cultural

In order to change the way the United States food system is operating at the moment, a change needs to be made in the education that people are receiving about the way their food is produced, manufactured, distributed and consumed. The U.S. food system has become increasingly reliant on mass production factories and multinational retail corporations while local farms and family owned food markets diminish. Economies of scale and opportunity costs represent barriers to change of the current food system because of the many different paths available, each creating different outcomes for consumers, sellers, large corporations and small farms, determining their profit, prices, capital and value. Educating the American people about the benefits of local food production and the downsides of large scale food production, such as nutritional value, disease and safety concerns, and economic advantages, will help to move our food system from “point A” to “point B”.

When I was in High School I attended Atlantic County Institute of Technology (ACIT) studying the culinary arts half my school day, and the other half was spent at Mainland Regional High School (MRHS). I was offered this program due to the fact I was labeled as having ADD at the time. This vignette is not about my ADD or my horrible experience at ACIT, but about about one single month of my senior year English class. The year had whirled by and it was almost summer, but when it was time to read Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet my high school English teacher decided that instead of reading the classic play the class would watch a sub-par movie staring Leonardo DiCaprio instead.

Sharon outlines some of the dishes that Tom’s family prepares for them and then states that whatever food that her family would have would be much spicier and there would also be foods like macaroni and cheese and collard greens (DeWolf & Morgan, 2012). Food is an easy and effective way of sharing culture because of the “deep history and meaning rooted into the gathering, preparation, and serving of food” (A Taste of China, 2018). This being said, a cultural similarity that came of this experience is that food is an integral part of both Tom and Sharon’s respective cultures and most other cultures as well. Food is a way for people who come from differing cultures to unite and learn about each

I was also raised in a very simple, southern background. My family loves to cook southern style food. I am like you, I do not really care for fried food. I guess its because I was raised eating so much of it, over time I just got tired of it and wanted to eat a bit healthier. I love Mac n Cheese, I could honestly eat it with every single meal. My family gathers together a lot, and we will play music but no one really dances. We do not have any special traditions as far as types of music or dances either; we keep it really simple. When my family gets together, its simple like your family, it mainly consists of everyone bringing a food item, and enjoying each others company.

Growing up, I had the privilege of exploring different cultures in my community; one aspect - food. A love for going to a Chinese restaurant by my school and converse in Mandarin Chinese with the waitress, or go to the Mexican grills near my home and learn the cuisine in Spanish, spurred my passion for finding a connection to my own culture’s value of food. With so many wide ranges of cultural foods, I have begun to learn that it wasn't just one culture that loved food or good times, but a universal theme.

When I moved out of my home and began purchasing my own food, I was given the opportunity to have more power over the food that I consumed. Maintaining a healthy diet became an important aspect of my life and I started researching ways to achieve a healthy diet. Prior to taking Food in American Culture, I thought that I was well informed on the foods I was putting in my body. However, taking this course has been an eye opening experience and I have discovered that I had little and or incorrect knowledge on the foods that I was consuming.

Most people wouldn’t deny that food is vital to everyday life, but perhaps it has more importance than just simply nourishing our bodies. According to Carole M. Counihan, a doctor of anthropology, food is so important that society has constructed rules regarding its consumption. Counihan emphasizes in her 1992 Anthropology Quarterly article, “Food Rules in the United States: Individualism, Control and Hierarchy,” that these rules serve as the “means through which human beings construct reality” (Counihan, 1992, p. 55). Counihan advocates for the importance of studying food rules by explaining that knowledge about how food is viewed in our culture can do three things: improve understanding of other culture’s food rules, allow nutrition

I think of my food heritage as second-hand heritage. I never had a rich food heritage growing up, but my parents did. They both grew up on farms in rural Romania. They raised their own chickens, cows, and pigs. They knew, and on a daily basis did, milk cows, collect eggs, kill and pluck a chicken to cook, and made do with the grains and produce they grew themselves. My mother told me the story of how she was a teenager when she tried coffee for the first time. I, on the other hand, grew up in Florida about fifteen years after my parents moved to America. My mother still cooked the same food that she was taught to make and eat when she was growing up in Romania, but she went grocery shopping a few blocks away for her chicken and flour instead

I grew up in an African American household. Growing up, dinner at my grandmas house was fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, fried catfish, and grandma's favorite fruit cake. I have been been to three different places in my lifetime Germany, Oklahoma, and now El Paso. I feel like each place me and my family lived in,we took that food into our household and made it our own. For example in Germany we found the famous bratwurst,and me and my family loved them so much that we now cook bratwurst on the regular basis. When we lived in Oklahoma, we brought into our household "Indian tacos." Now that we live in El Paso my mom, now likes to cook with different spicy sauces. Whenever we go out to eat we usually don't get something my mom can cook at our house, because we are so use to it that we would like to try new and different things.

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

My interest in Food Science is never-ending and I am really looking forward to finding out more about the food industry. I hope to gain the scientific knowledge and practical experience from this course so that I will be able to contribute to achieving a better quality of life in the

Burning sherbets, instantly frozen ice cream, pasta made out of jelly or vegetables, edible menus, kitchens with sonicators, pH meters, liquid nitrogen, which can flash freeze almost anything, makes it feel almost like magic or something out of a fantasy or science fiction novel. But it is not, in fact it is part of culinary arts, where innovation has taken wings, and revolutionized the art and science of cooking. Terms like culinary science, culinology and molecular gastronomy have become part of the innovative culinary world. Innovation is communicated and translated into culinary arts, especially by chefs and others involved in the industry through creative adaptations, like molecular gastronomy, culinology, fusions, transformations, co-creation etc. Innovation spans through different areas of the culinary world and is not only limited to the process of cooking, but also to understand the consumers, as well as to develop different utensils and incorporate other means of technology. (Várela, 2013)