I came to a professional kitchen by way of discovering what it meant to be myself. I have spent the better part of the last two days analyzing food. Its proliferations. The way that influences have touched cultures far removed from one another. How ingredients can interconnect at a seemingly irrational moment and produce culinary serendipity. Have any of you ever looked at your plate and wondered how the food you are eating now was somehow influenced by a battle at the Plains of Abraham or through colonial conquest? Peaceful coexistence? Or by chance?
Do you think when Jules Verne wrote one of his masterpieces; “Around the World in 80 days,” he could envision the world as it is today? Do you think that he had enough foresight to imagine that our growing global population would at some point interact with each other in less than a day? Getting on a plane in New York and being in Shanghai or Delhi less than 18 hours later? Well now I’ve started looking at food as a component of our development both as a species and a civilization. I’ve started exploring the relationship between cultural diversity and richness with the proliferation and spread of something as simple (yet highly valued) as salt.
I think of the past as a conduit to the future. I look at the present as a consequence of the past and a catalyst for the future and though intelligent I had never thought to look at the impact of food on the directions and right turns that the world has taken. Of course I’ve looked at the micro and the macro trying to piece together some broad stroke understanding to how we’ve come to here. But now, as I look deeply and meaningfully into food I am beginning to see the history of conquest, colonization, subjugation and control come to life. And all this through the spread of the chopstick, or certain curing methods.
When I thought about writing this post I thought about breaking down the cultural influences on each of the areas that I’ve spent the last two days studying. Until that is I came to the conclusion that perhaps it is more important to look at the underlying issues, the catalysts, the impetus for foods spread and the meaning of that spread. Have any of you ever thought about the plate of spaghetti, or pizza, or dim sum or curry that you are eating? Have you ever considered the various elements of space, time and history that had to take place for the proliferation to occur?
The spread of food is the history of the spread of domination both militarily and culturally. Much now as the United States spreads democracy both through the barrel of a gun and through cultural hegemony that plate of spaghetti that you are eating, or the curry, was also spread the same way though with differing effects.
Initially, the spread of food was the result of established trade routes. Established that is by pioneers that had the wherewithal and the fortitude to travel into the unknown to reach across divides that had hitherto unknown and misunderstood cultural divides. Imagine if you will De Gama traveling for the first time a sea route that opened up the spice trade? Or consider if you will the Arab dominance of the spice trade (predominantly because of ideal positioning on the map) and the resultant ten to forty times more Europe paid for spices because they were at the behest of the Arabs. Have you considered how revolutionary it is that the most common element of every human’s life has now been influenced by the rapid proliferation of food in the last twenty years? Consider this for a moment, when did the specialty food shops start rising up? What influence did this have on your consumption?
To me it would appear that choice is not merely enough. The cultural richness, enhanced by historical significance and naturally great flavour shapes many of your decisions today as an after thought and nothing more. Yet as I continue the journey that I am on, I strive to seek to understand the cultural influence and significance of for example Kimchi.
Have you ever considered how Szechwan or Thai, or Middle Eastern or Eastern Europe Cuisine was able to make a stronghold? There is the obvious movement of people by plane, train or automobile but what of the ability of a dish to take hold? What of, for example, falafel and its impact on Toronto’s cuisine as an example? Or Poutine?
Take Persian cuisine. What was the impetus for its introduction and flourishing in Western Culture? Is there some great historical event, mass exodus, or outside influence that has brought you to the words; extra tahini and tabouli? What do you think?
I myself have looked at Asia, India, China, The Americas and now Europe and I can isolate the trends that historically led to their proliferation. And I begin to wonder in this ever increasingly global world does the Thai curry I’m eating tonight have the same cultural importance here that it has there? The answer to me is quite simple. In South East Asia rather than saying; “How are you?” or “What’s up?” They ask some type of variation of; “Have you eaten yet?” In Thai it is; “Have you eaten rice today?”
Can you imagine greeting someone with the words; “Have you eaten McDonalds today?” For some reason it is lost on us here in the so-called New World. The importance of food, its impact on our lives and indeed our spiritual well-being has become perverted by the instant gratification culture that we have allowed to rise up. Our sense of community, togetherness, etc has been adversely affected by the life that we have accepted as commonplace in North America. To a degree in Europe but at least there, as it is in Asia, India, South East Asia, food is more than just food. It is a celebration and a means of uniting the communal environment that until recently had been the commonplace and motivator of society.
What meaning can we draw from the fig? The date? The pomegranate? Roti? Curry? How has sorghum changed us? Or millet? Maize or Patagonian Anglerfish? How does the life I live each day impact each of these things and what’s more the people that brought them to my awareness?
Food is so commonplace that it has been reduced in our society to an afterthought. But as I have mentioned before; Had Khrushchev eaten fried pork instead of chicken Kiev would there have been a nuclear war? Had Mao not been able to mobilize the masses through his understanding that the way to the people was through their stomach would China be the massive power that it is today? Look at Gandhi and his move away from food to prove a point? The Irish Hunger strikers? There is nothing more powerful that a human can do than choose to whittle away at his own existence through the refusal of food to teach those around them a point? Without food we are nothing? In a very short period of time our bodies shut down and we become incapable of life.
What if the Germans had had proper food and shelter when fighting a two front war? What would have happened then? What if Goliath had had his bowl of Wheatties the day that David came with his slingshot?
Naturally I could sit here all day and make pronouncements about food and its importance but I think the point that I am trying to make is that the plate of food that will invariably be in front of you today is far more important that you give it credit for.
This then leads me to my next point. How do I convince the masses that the food that I prepare is more than just a plate? It is a confluence of space and time, historical significance and future impact. It is the source of all. It is the bringing together or communities, of minds, both like and at extreme odds.
Look at the spread of the Mongols and you gain insight into the culinary practices of the Russians as well as the French. Look to the Chinese and their influence on Korea, Japan and the rest of Southeast Asia. Look at Europe and the spread of tradition and manipulation in the new world to create new dishes with a Native American slant? Look at the Incas and the royal road and what that meant to a dish being prepared 1500 miles away from where it was born and the similarities and minute differences that result. Look at the Emilian Way in Italy and the impact that it had.
Each of these examples have awakened me to the heritage and future of dishes. Civilizations advancement is the story of food. It is the presentation of a novel concept to an old idea in an appetizing way. Scarcely one hundred and fifty years ago there was no such thing as a restaurant and look at the world today. Can you go a block without finding one (though I hardly call fast food a restaurant)?
At any rate I felt that instead of boring you with detail, I would instead get you to start looking at your plate. Devour it yes but also devour its cultural and historical significances.
What if Jean Chrétien didn’t like Pepper on his plate? But more importantly where did the pepper come from?
I thought I would end with this quote from Gandhi;
“Human nature will only find itself when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal.”
Be inspired today. Live, love and laugh.
A la prochaine
SDM
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