About five minutes pass between the moment I open my eyes in the morning and when the last wild-freshly picked blueberry is dropped into the pancake batter my grandmother swears is famous. As I get older I begin to cherish the time spent in the kitchen for a variety of reasons. Growing up in a fairly simple culinary family from a cultural standpoint, special food to me has always been a love hate relationship. Admitting that my parents come from very different backgrounds both from a societal and economical standpoint is key to understanding what food means to me. My mother was raised in a family of eight, never struggling but always appreciative of food on the table. On my fathers side of the family, my grandmother has always taken great joy in cooking and has influenced me greatly through my younger years. It would be fair to say that cooking throughout my childhood was more of a stress than anything else. However as I grow older I have started to cook on my own and enjoy cooking so much that time fades away, aside from the inevitable timer to ensure a medium rare steak. Taking time to sit down and plan a meal, preparing fresh ingredients and enjoying one of the world’s greatest pleasures can be defined as a hobby, personality trait, or even just something you do. — try to not see it as a chore

The feeling of creation starts for me in the grocery store. I am always looking to cook something that I have never tried before. Freedom in the kitchen to me is the ability to try something new and enjoy that for myself. Michael Pollen’s essay “Out of the kitchen, Onto the couch” brings out a lot of negativity involving the culinary world. Along with all the negativity around the world today I believe that while yes, the idea of food to the dinner table is increasingly lost. Pollen says “less interested in making it fast or easy than making it right, because cooking for her was so much more than a means to a meal.” There is a big difference between work to make a meal and time spent in the kitchen to produce an experience I’m happy with. I find myself in the middle of this conversation not knowing whether or not to lean into the beautiful and vibrant side of cooking, or the downfall of America Pollen seems to portray. Simple moments created by my dad about how he would cook for his college roommates in New York help pull me in what feels like the right direction. Similar to how all different ingredients go together to form a meal, perspectives vary from person to person all around the world. Growing up with a rough-around the edges perspective around food, even the little moments help me open my eyes to how meaningful a home cooked meal can be. Galen Arnold writes about his experiences with food and what means most to him saying “Food is a pinnacle of social interaction, serving as a catalyst for blooming relationships, ideas, emotions, and serves as an anchor to one’s origin”. 

The ideas Pollen portrays in his writing are strongly opinionated about the movement for fast and easy food these days. While yes, food in the past has been seen as a household chore, as Pollen points out, a womanly duty. However, just as massive changes in media come from the cooking scene in television, unless you were brought up in a belief that women would do the cooking, I believe these past connotations to be completely untrue in the modern world. Food can be looked at from two sides of the ball, for pures sustenance on one hand, and the other side is a vast array of social implications, creative outreaches, passion in one of its purest forms, and for some, just another check off the daily to-do list. While most meals I agree with Pollen are fairly rudimentary and somewhat unmemorable, understanding the difference between food and a meal is key to understanding my perspective.

 It reminds me of the feeling I have when your avocado is perfectly green and yellow, or garnishing a dish of pasta as everyone flocks to the table.