FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Bo McMillanThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, AB’16

bomcmill@uchicago.edu

WHAT EXACTLY IS FOOD?

• Merriam Webster: “Material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy; nutriment in solid form; something that nourishes, sustains, or supplies.”

• “Eating is an agricultural act.” – Wendell Berry• “Nature and culture, are also opposites in respect

to rawness and cooking.” – Claude Lévi-Strauss• “It was an article of faith during the Sixties that

the personal was political—that by ‘revolutionizing’ one’s own private life, the conscientious rebel would also transform ‘the system.’” — Warren Belasco

• “The narrative itself is the time machine, and memory is the fuel.” — James Gleick

Image Source: Walmart.com

COMO AGUA PARA CHOCOLATEOR, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

• “A novel in monthly installments”• Really, 12 recipes

• Tita, Mama Elena, Rosaura, Gertrudis

• Mexican Revolution

• Start of the 20th Century

• Ranch near US-Mexico borderImage Source: Penguin Random House

COMO AGUA PARA CHOCOLATEOR, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

Image Source: Like Water for Chocolate, The New York Times

¡LA REVOLUCIÓN!

• ”Of all the women in the house, Tita was the most qualified to take the open position of the cook, and once there, could escape through her detailed control of flavors, smells and whatever else she desired.” (53)

• “Look what I’ve done with her commands! I’m tired of it! I’m tired of obeying her!” (102)

• Los rebeldes and Mama Elena

• Las criadas (housemaids)Image Source: Penguin Random House

¡LA REVOLUCIÓN!

Corn vs. Wheat; Bordeaux wine and Champagne; Guajolote vs. Pavo; “Chocolate y Rosca de Reyes”

Image Sources: Noshon.it, Le Caveau Wines, Univision, Yucatan Times

A DETOUR: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME AND PROUST

• “I place in position before my mind’s eye the still recent taste of that first mouthful, and I feel something start within me, something that leaves its resting-place and attempts to rise, something that has been embedded like an anchor at a great depth; I do not know yet what it is, but I can feel it mounting slowly; I can measure the resistance, I can hear the echo of great spaces traversed.” (60)

• “But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.” (61)

Image Sources: Biography.com,Gastronomer’s Guide

A DETOUR: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME AND PROUST

(WELL…A DOUBLE DETOUR)

Image Sources: Pop City, Pittsburgh Quarterly, An Okie Traveler Out and About, American Planning Association-Pennsylvania Chapter

A VOLVER: TITA Y LA FAMILIA

• “…She understood perfectly what it would feel like to be buñuelo dough as it was dropped into boiling oil.” (21-22)

• Codornices y Pastel Chabela• La caja de cerillos en su cuerpo• ”Everyone has to find those

detonators in order to live, since the combustion that they ignite in one’s self is what nourishes the energy of the soul. In other words, this combustion is one’s nourishment.” (119-120)

• Los chiles en nogada Image Sources: Nosh On.It, Mexican Food Journal

A VOLVER: TITA Y LA FAMILIA

• ”Because this emotion is so strong...before our eyes appears a brilliant tunnel that shows us the place that we forgot at birth and calls us to rediscover our lost divine origin.” (120)

• “Tita was the last link in a chain of cooks that since the prehispanic era had transmitted the secrets of the kitchen from generation to generation...” (53)

• “This chocolate was prepared in the old ways. Getrudis raised a prayer in silence and with closed eyes, asking that Tita would love many years more to cook the recipes of the family. Neither herself or Rosaura had the knowledge to do it; the day that Tita died she would die together with the family’s legacy.” (182)

Image Sources: Crafty Cooking Mama, Pinterest