What is food? Sure, it’s nourishment. Food is a basic necessity for survival. But food is so much more.
Some people say food can heal. Some say it can prevent Cancer. Others say you are what you eat.
To me, food has been my way of saying “I love you.” I fix meals for my family and wait to see the small smile of joy cross their faces when they take a bite. I cook to feed their bellies, to nourish their stomachs and their minds. I cook to make memories. Memories of us cooking together. Memories recreated from my own childhood. I cook to remind them of loved ones who have passed on, and to show them that traditions begin in the kitchen.
I cook the recipes of my mother, my sister, my grandmothers, and my mother-in-law. And I create my own recipes, so that someday my own children will re-create special meals to once again feel how they felt when they were five.
I hold handwritten recipes in my hands. Sometimes I hold nothing except my memories. And I turn on the stove or the oven, and I remember. I create. I am an artist when I am in the kitchen. I am free. I am alive.
Have you ever smelled sweet basil in the summer? I’d wear it as perfume if I could. Have you ever stood amidst a kitchen filled with fresh lemons and oranges and simply inhaled the perfume? Have you ever made a meal entirely out of fresh ingredients and noticed the way your body felt afterward?
Food—so much more than we give it credit for. What does food mean to you?