Power of Words

When you think of chefs you may not think about them as wordsmiths. Be sure that we are a group greatly entrenched in language.  We have a long history and our own lingo. This realm of terms, definitions, and understanding both describes and confines us. Chefs notoriously use language that some find offensive as a daily ritualistic release of tension.

The language of food is important and chefs rely upon it to convey clarity when speaking about a food request. Having said that, I am a chef who is rubbed the wrong way when people misuse a culinary term but expect to receive exactly what they have envisioned instead of what they have asked for to eat. If you asked for the Tomato Florentine soup, you can't be upset by the presence of spinach, for example, as Florentine means spinach in the kitchen.

Recently, I was on a mini-vacation and was looking for food fair. I called the near-by Cracker Barrel and asked if their were gluten-free options on the menu. They said yes, but when I arrived the menu did not have gluten-free pancakes or waffles nor biscuits, they brought an alternative menu that gave both nutritional information and pointed to some menu items as safe for my consumption. Offering me a bowl of oatmeal, fresh fruit, or steak and eggs, is not offering me options. I found it insulting that this was all that was offered and I didn't need them to tell me the fruit was gluten-free. By the way, the oatmeal was amazing and I had an order for dinner later on that weekend, but that is not the point. When I think of Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Original Pancake House, or any other breakfast spot it should not be difficult to make adjustment for alternative eaters, and shame on those who have the boldness to offer me fresh fruit as if I don't understand what gluten-free means.

Re-branding food items under new labeling is a funny thing these days. Every trip to the grocer has me laughing as the things that should be relied upon to be gluten-free have redesigned packaging to inform us of this new revelation of food category. I don't need anyone to tell me that unpopped whole popcorn is gluten-free, what's next, gluten-free water?

Language can bind us together with a common ground of understanding and communication but also can divide us with a loss of clarity or misunderstanding. For many consumers who purchase gluten-free items, not all of us must buy these items for health reasons like I do, but rather buy these items because the term is trendy and new-ish. I'd even bet there are some who couldn't accurately define the term but swears that it is bad for your health. No, no, no... It isn't good for my digestion, not everyone's. 

Mother's Day

Every Spring we venture to celebrate our annual day to honor mom. This tradition has been dated back to the Roman eras, in one form or another. However, the American establishment of Mother's Day was created in the 1900's. Woodrow Wilson signed a measure to make Mother's Day a national holiday in 1914.

This traditional day of celebration of all the things our mother's strive so hard to provide their children quickly became commercialized. Businesses such as floral and candy confectioners saw a big boom even before the day was ratified as a holiday. A simple idea of thanks for the unsung role of mothering was tainted by profit.

The commercialization of the holiday eventually had the creator, Ana Jarvis, the advocate of the holiday renouncing it entirely before she died in 1948. Jarvis even lobbied for it to be removed for the American calendar. I know how she felt.

Commercialization of everything is the American agenda. You see it all the time, even if you are not aware of it. Christmas decorations go up each year before Thanksgiving dinner is served and right after a feast to celebrate our thankfulness, millions of Americans clobber each other to buy more stuff to take home during the Black Friday sales.

Holidays break up the dreary daily struggle. They add richness and can foster better relations with family and friends. Cheer up moms, your kids will be burning and torturing food to serve you breakfast in bed very soon. Cherish the macaroni art and the lanyard bracelets. You deserve them and much more. Your stretch marks, imperfect abs, along with the whole host of sacrifices of sleep, money, time, and headache make you the beautiful mom that you are everyday.

Happy Mother's Day Beautiful Ladies. The whole world owes you a debt that can never be repaid.

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day

Nourishing More Than Just the Body

There are lots of components to this realm of food. We point to Southern cooking as Soul Food, rightfully so. Food traditions all are about nourishing the body and the soul. Food gifts are all about wishing you a prolonged life. This is the tradition of offering guests something to eat or drink, a hospitality.

 

Dietary laws and alternative diets are formed by either the rejection of,  restriction of, protection of, or the embracing some food source or holy day. For example, many religions reject pork as a food source, many speculate that this law has roots back before safe cooking and storage of pork was possible. Outlawing the consumption of pork could easily had been as a protective measure to prevent illness among their tribes. 

Food, or more accurately, culinary is the art of food, the place where beauty meets nutrition. This special place touches so much of your life, from business to social, from medicine and health, from marking special events with color, life, beauty, warmth, and love, from the everyday need of fuel to the communal activities of everyone's life.

Every time we gather together we take a communion, small or large, ritualistic or not, that binds us all as one union. The history of food dates all the way back to the earliest of mankind. With out the changes from hunter-gather to agriculture, there would still be no society, no government, no libraries, and no localized written knowledge base. It wasn't until we began to farm for our food and work with animal care for livestock did we stay centralized and formed villages, towns, and cities. A vast amount of time was spent following and finding food stuffs before we learned to farm. Food has always been at the heart of our culture and cultures around the globe. 

All food is soul food essentially. We share and begin to understand aspects of other's daily lives by way of their food. The popular dishes of any country or city, tells the dinner a lot about the people who created it. What types of food are available in that region? If there is a lot of cows versus a lot of lamb can tell you is there are grasslands or rocky hills. How is the climate, hot or cold? Cold climates do not have any tropical fruits and hot peppers. Is there good farming land? If a region has abundance of vegetables types available then chances are that farming is important and available. Do their dishes take a long time to cook or a short time? Asian cultures learned to cook foods quickly because there are not a lot of trees like we have in America so things needed to be done with as little fire as possible.

All good food has one essential ingredient, shared by all sources, and implied by the givers, love. You do not feed an enemy with the hard labors that were spent to grow and cultivate your sources of food. I know that our society is becoming more and more distant from our food sources. We have generations of kids that only know that chicken comes from the grocery store, for example. I spend a good deal of my time educating the young about the real facts of food sources so that they may make food selections based upon reality, informed decisions, instead of marketing brainwashing on the televisions and mass media.   

I'm Okay if You Say No.

Everyone that knows me understands that I don't like missing out on opportunities and I especially don't like leaving money on the table. I keep multiple streams of income going and I have always had a high octane can of energy.

It took me a while to get into the place where I am comfortable when potential clients pass me over and chose another vendor for their events. I admit that I once would be sad when friends, relatives, and associates would have an event and I wasn't even asked if I would like to be their supplier for the evening.

I am a dedicated person who works hard in my field and I strive for excellence in everything I do. I say this to what end? I no longer let being passed over upset me. There are tons of reasons that people may want a different vendor or service and those reasons may not actually have anything to do with me personally, my pricing, or other such reason.

I have had clients who wanted me to cut my pricing, given them the 'hook up', questioned why my prices are what they are, tried to guilt trip me into lowering my price, or just wasn't a good client to have at that time.  Just as clients have a choice of who they want to work with, I too have the same choices about what customers I want to work with or not.

Just recently, I did a tasting for a clients in short notice. The party planner that booked me is one in which I have worked with for several years, and she was confident that this event would be one that the client would have loved to have my service. Alas, this was not the case and I suspected so once I had met them at my door. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. The party planner emailed me with a list of concerns that the client expressed to her after our meeting. I simply responded that I didn't wish to prove or disprove the issues expressed in the email because I felt that it would be a waste of my valuable time. They declined and that's okay.

Most of the 'issues' expressed were not fair, not understandable, and not relevant to the question of weather or not I was able to satisfy their needs for the event. The biggest issue, and the only one I will cite here, was that I have a pet and she was lose in the house. After having asked if they had any aversion to my cat and/or wanted her to be in her kennel, they said no. Therefore, how was this on their list of reasons to decline.

I provide excellence at every turn possible, and when I don't think that I can provide it, I have no issues expressing my concerns. Getting to this mental and professional state only came to me with my growing maturity. Beforehand, I often would kick myself about someone passing me over, or I would feel the tug and pull to give price concessions just to secure that I would win the order. Every time I  stuck my neck out for someone else's event, without a doubt, I regretted it. I once worked up a menu for a so-called friend's birthday and I didn't earn a dime for my efforts, only to have her make a list of complaints afterwards. She knew there was no where else, and nobody else, that would have done such things for that small amount of money.

Such is life, you live long enough, you will learn to value your work and time as a precious commodity worthy of honorarium. Cash talks and b.s. walks.

Going Live

Just like with live television, broadcasting a live podcast can run into problems. Last week, and a couple other time as well, we planned a live broadcast on Blogtalkradio.com only to run into problems. As I have had the opportunity to mess around with my options, I had a plan B. Since it is a program with very little visuals, I quickly went to a taped conversation that I uploaded after the conclusion of the conversation.

There are a few ways that you can create content for your podcast if the server is too busy or something interrupts your scheduled show. I often tape my shows from Freeconferencecall.com. This service allows callers to chat and record the conversation easily. All participants call into a common phone number and the host can use its tools to make a mp3 of the meeting. Most laptops and PC's have options for recording voice recordings. Sometimes the feature may not have options to change the format of the recording, so please check. If you record a conversation in a format not recognized by your broadcast service, you may need a converter software to get the recording in a format the you can use.

I enjoy podcasting. The conversations heard on my show are very similar to conversations I have offline and in real life. The food news, food culture, chef conversations, and the culinary industry are apart of my everyday. And I hope my audience agrees....

We set the goal of one podcast a week, and I hope to always go live on Saturday afternoons, however if we run into issues, we got to tape and upload later. The other reason that may force us to go tape is the availability of our guest. I'd rather tape a podcast with a dynamic guest whenever is best for them than not to get the conversation with the guest.

I got one scheduled for today, so catch us if you can:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/giantforkandspoon/2016/04/24/episode-16-maurice-miles-wy-dolphin-and-foodie

Master chefs, Exec. Chef training, and other advanced training...

Long ago, when Jesus was a boy, there were only a few culinary educations that a student could attain without going overseas to Paris or London therefore I, like many others, took the routes that were available at the time. As I worked in the industry, longer and longer, I began to come across chefs who held titles that I had never heard of, Certified Executive Chef.  An organization called the American Culinary Foundation seemed to be at the heart of this accreditation.

ACF was founded by three chefs in New York to help promote culinary education, offer certifications and training, networking and the like. Here in Chicago, the ACF is getting more popular but as a hospitality industry worker for the last 20 plus years, it has only been within the last few years that I have noticed chefs using and working within this organization.

No matter where or when you receive your educational background that is focused in our industry, what you come away with is really determined by you as the student. I can take three kids to train and mentor, and after we are done, I will see three different skill levels within the students. Our industry is very skill based, and no matter who you are taught by, your skill level is truly your own. I say this, to many students, don't base your selection of schools based upon the price, famous chef instructors, or any other tangible matrix, but do so based upon your motivation and drive, and what you want to do with your career. What do I mean? It can get very expensive, well it has gotten in the last few years, seeking a culinary education. The popularity boom of chefs and the creation of the celebrity chef has opened many new schools who offer courses, certificates, and degrees in culinary.

No matter what is taught, and by who, the student's ability will grow with time and coaching.  If a student enrolls with no cooking experience,  they are somewhat behind than other students, but their raw ability can propel them to the top of the class. I entered into a culinary college with a very small population and without a huge reputation, 90% of what I do well, I learned from repetitive practice on-the-job.

The only advice I can give the aspiring chefs out there, study, practice, practice, practice. A school can teach technique and a foundation of skills. It is up to the chef to take off and sore. No two chefs have the skill or styles even after the same training. It takes time to realize what it is that makes you special and the only way to find it is to listen to customer and management critiques. I say this because if you are anything like me, most chefs only focus on the mistakes of a project, while other eyes see the glory. I am my own worse critic. I spend, literally, hours on a cake project and when I have stopped I can only see those things that could have been done better or those aspects that I would have liked to change, so often I am pleasantly surprised at the positive reactions of my clients. Go figure.

I am a huge supporter of higher educations. In my family, there was never any language of doubt about attending a college. It was always "when you go to college" not "if you go". I also know that not every person is suited to pursuing a PhD in philosophy. Trade skill are still needed and teaching programs are still required even with our nation's trending towards a intellectual model. Handcrafts will always be in demand.  

The best chef that I have worked for was one without any higher education. This titan of pastry had 40 plus years at the Palmer House. He began as a dishwasher and worked his way up to Exec. Pastry Chef. My chef was hardworking and hard on his staff, not in a mean fashion or abusive, he had one standard for us all, "Good work that is Palmer House good." We worked everything from butter, sugar, flour. We didn't use pre-made or mixes ever. The best days in that kitchen were days were we all worked in symphony and chef had nothing to complain about or correct. I learned a lot while there, including my passion for real scratch baking.

Chefs are broken before they are made, and the best instructors, will help students to build upon what they know as they teach them new tools in their toolboxes. Pursue your passion vigorously and wisely. Practice is the best teachers in this business and whenever you get to practice, especially with someone above your skill level, take it.

A chef has a lot of plates to spin, human resources issues, financial duties, order management, licencing, insurance, schedules, transportation, delivery, receiving, inventory management, vendors, networking, client requests, billing and invoicing, and all of this before the creation of sale items. We love what we do, no one would do this if they didn't, and we all take on much more work than can be done in a 8 hour workday. 

Culinary and Chemistry

As I sit in the school library, it becomes painfully obvious that cooking and chemistry is one and the same.  Cooking is more applied science than others courses of study, add in a bit of alchemy and you are square in the middle of chef life.

 

The same skills of formulations, testing, observation, and trail and error, ever present in the kitchens all over the universe.  Even in cases where the chef or cook is cooking from a recipe, all of the steps apply, as good cooks never rely on an untested source when feeding their audience.  Some of us can review a written recipe and spot of it is accurate or not. Others must try it to discover the faults or the accuracy. In either case, mistakes can teach you more than your triumphs in the kitchen.   

The ability to test, modify, mix and remix, ingredients and turn the simple into the worthiest of dishes, let alone into art, is what chefs strive to achieve. Science and art culminate into a type of jazz, painting, sculpture, and architecture. The best of us climb to towering heights and can earn a type of immortality that gives lasting effects on the culinary world. Julia Child will always be with us through her teachings, books, and television broadcasts. The ladders she built will be scaled for generations to come.

We whisk up acids and bases, apply heat or cold, emulsify, extract, concentrate, dilute, expand, divide, and blend, all to achieve the awe inspiring creations. We live for the oohs and awwws that are created by our work. We lose sleep, forgo stopping to tend to our own needs, work odd hours, long hours, and miss out on the simple things, like events we are invited to attend, and even daylight. We arrive in the dark hours of the night and leave again after the sun has gone for the day. We talk more with our co-workers then our families and friends, some times. We can share our story with our loved ones but often they can't really understand who and what we have endured during our work. 

Sometimes I have encountered people who either don't understand what it is we do, or they act as if our work isn't important or not a profession like their's. The amounts of learning and training needed to work at my level can be greater than many other profession and less than others. It is often hard to adequately describe what we do, and how we do it, as many who cook think that they can do my job, or that it can't be that hard, or couldn't possibly take the amount of  hours that it really does. Sometimes my commitment to my work can require me to miss some events in my own children's life for the sake of other celebrations or needs. I don't like that aspect but my food magic show is what puts a roof over their heads.

Mixing magic with nutrition, art with taste, building constructs and designs for the eye, enticements for the nose, and specialties of taste can be very demanding. I love my work and I love teaching kids to think about and improve their options within the kitchen, that can improve their lives and the lives of others around them. 

Culinary and Mathematics

In my travels, I have learned a lot of different things. One of the hurdles that my students struggle with is mathematics in the kitchen. There are others equally difficult and important that I will confront later.

Kitchen math is relatively simple but it is painfully obvious that there are deficits when training young folks. It's the fractions that trip them up. It's frustrating to them and to me that they are in high school and stumble over this stuff. My 6th - 8th grade group are better at it than my older kids and I believe that the quality of their education is a bit better.

Multiplying and dividing fractions, and dealing with 3 tsp equal 1 Tbsp, the rules of non-metric calculations are able to confuse the best of us. I hit them consistently with kitchen math, both on paper and in practical usage.  I am disappointed that the movement to change to the metric system has been extremely slow. Metric system is much simpler to calculate as the entire system is base 10.

With metric system calculations, a quick glance is typically all you need to do in order to scale a recipe, however, America has been very resistant to a change over. Many of our citizens that use the metric system know how to use it because of our drug culture. Believe it or not, grams and kilos are predominate measurement in drug trafficking but when cooking you have to deal with 1/3, 2/3, 128 oz equal 1 gallon, and 16 oz or 2 cups equal 1 pint.


I have been an advocate for conversion to the metric system since high school chemistry class, a thousand years ago, because of its simplicity. Unfortunately, we have not converted and all of cookbooks use the old system so we cannot get accustom to use of metric. We buy 2 liters of soda pop but not 100 grams of sugar, for example.

Our system is the one we inherited from the British Empire where 1 foot was the measurement based upon the length of the King's foot. Americans do not use the weight measurement of stones but rather pounds. Horses are still measured in hands tall and we do still use peck, bushels, yards, and acres. All are old British royal family measurements. I could understand the use of this system when there wasn't an alternative, but metric is far superior and simplistic, so why not adopt the better system?

Environmental Chef

Every body, and every chef, relies upon quality ingredients to make a meal go from hum drum to zing pop. Without honorable farming practices, from soup to nuts, the chef cannot do what we do best.

Organic, non GMO, pasteurized, and fortified, all influence what our plates contain. Should chefs have a voice in the movement away from Monsanto tainted food, processed and persevered, items with more chemicals than food? Yes. 2015 was the first year on record that Americans spent more money on restaurants then at the grocery store. One can extrapolate that chefs are having a greater and grater impact on the health of the American citizen. Will it be left up to the corporations or to the craftsmanship of skilled chefs?

How we grow and treat food, or manufacture it, should be very important to everyone, but especially to us chefs. Life happens, change is the only constant, but preservation of the food sources we rely upon, not only for our trade, but for our very lives, must be a concern.

There is a farm to table movement in the culinary scene. I am not directly apart of that movement per se, as pastry doesn't rely as heavily upon farmed items as does the savory chef. However, as a fibromyaliga patient, I am rewriting my common eating practice to be gluten-free because the ingestion of gluten reeks havoc on my system.

Gardening, farm to table, diets, vegetarian and vegan, no matter your eating style how your food is treated before you purchase it is a huge consideration to be mindful of when purchasing. Environmentalist point to climate changes that are signaling some drastic shifts to our planetary harvest of edible products. We need to listen and learn before it is too late. We must take some responsibility for feeding ourselves. We have hired corporations to provide our nutritional needs by way of prepacked and process foods. We are confusing good for you and good tasting, they are not mutually exclusive. Many things that are good for us nutrition-wise can be very good tasting as well, however, if you are accustom to eating process food almost exclusively then your have trained your tasting ability to like those types of things, and therefore, being unaccustomed to the flavors of this items.
macrobiotics

Lots of kids in this new generation are trained to eat so many processed food items, microwave entrees, microwave popcorn, chips, dips, salsa, and super sticky sweet pastries that are just spun sugars. Sugar is a very addictive item with levels of dependencies very similar to heroine addiction. Frequently this diet is tied to the income of the parents. The lower the annual income of the household has a direct connection to the types of foods consumed. Often the families chose food stuffs with the primary focus on getting the cheapest and the most abundant items. While this type of consideration can be understood, it is the worst reaction or action that the shopper can do. I once was listening to a radio show and the host hit the nail on the head. He stated many things about budgeting, the most import of them was 'It is most important to understand when to spend and where to save. You should save on items that depreciate over time, like a car or clothing, but you should never buy food totally based on saving money. You should spend on food with the mindset of health benefit. The quality food stuffs you buy today will help to prevent you from being sick tomorrow and spending a high percentage of your money on medical bills.' I totally agree.

The environmental impacts of toxic waste, oil spills, water contamination, polluted air, are easy to understand in terms of their effects upon food resources. The global warming issues of storm changes, floods, drought, shifts in tides, changes in streams and rivers, will devastate our farming lands and methods. These issues are looming on the horizon but the current threats to our food supply are in the methodology of how we currently grow our food. The debates are all over the place, and the two loudest sides of the discussion are the organic food movement against the Goliath chemical companies, like Monsanto, who produce pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics for livestock. Add to that the factory farming practices that have changed how our dairy, eggs, and meat production/slaughter. The corporations like Monsanto, have always contended that the use of their products has increased yields and improved quality, and they maybe right, however, anyone that has ever had a garden of their own can tell you, the taste, variety, quality, of their harvest far exceeds anything offered in the grocery store.

Many chefs have established relationships with local farmers and livestock growers. This way the chef has the opportunity to understand, share, and ask for items that they would love to buy. Farm to table is more than a catchphrase, it is becoming a movement. Factory farming kills any uniqueness in preference of the most shelf stable and consistent items. We have breed, cross pollinated, and forced ripened foods to the point that they have the highest profit margins and ability to transport these items long distances. I find it to be much like corporate cooking. The corporate chef is often forced to produce the highest amount of items as quickly and consistently as possible which erodes the creative artistic aspects of the chef. Cookie cutter concepts in grocery stores, kitchens, and manufacturing, stomp out the uniqueness that happens when a chef is able to use their imagination. Can a chef create and repeat highly crafted items? Of course, we can, but when the total issue is all about designing in the most cost effective methods, the major ways to achieve this is with lesser quality items, machines, and factory items instead of handmade items. Kill the chef?

Revolutions have been fought over food issues over and over again. "Let them eat cake!" When the body of citizens examine their nutrition substandard, it becomes a big part of how they view their poverty or wealth. Can you afford to eat or feed your family? Can you afford to have quality foods on your table? Are you needlessly suffering from malnutrition and diseases? And what are you able to about it?

Elemental Fire

The campfire, the barbecue, the fireplace, the hearth, a tandoori oven, the wood burning stove, the gas light, all of which use the first gift from the gods, fire. The heaven rocked when the news got back that man knew fire. The chef, the pit master, the smokehouse, the luau, are all fire.

There is nothing more primal than fire. A gift and a curse, and a blessing and destroying all consuming elemental thing. Fire has a life of its own and the mastery of fire is a essential bit of what it is to be human. The link between food and nature, nutrition and humanity, simple yet powerful, basic and complex all at the same time.

Fire is transformitive, changing a raw meat into a new thing, charred and sweetened, concentrated rich and flavorful. The fire is the element that created cuisine out of simple items combining with the magic of flame and power. In this age of microwave options we are moving further and further away from nature. We are not spending time in the wilderness exploring, sleeping in tents, finding the unknown stream, hunting and gathering, or even studying about food. Americans spent more money in restaurants last year than in the grocery stores. What is amazing is that, for one thing, that has never happened before, and two it is putting even more distance between the diner and their food source.

As a chef instructor, I spend a good portion of my time familiarizing my students with information about nature and nutrition because they simply don't have any idea where the food comes from other than the grocery store. They are often amazed to learn where on a hog is the ham, that carrots are a root vegetable, that cheese is a fermented milk product, heck I am sure they couldn't tell me where the garbage dump is in their community.

I learned to cook, initially, in my grandmothers kitchen. I come from a long line of great female cooks in the family, both for the families needs and to serve others for a wage. A few of the men in the family could cook as well, but generally it was the mothers that did the majority of the chore. Unlike our white counterparts in America, the women in my family were working outside of the house well before the 1950's and 1960's so the revolution of the working woman was already our reality. Yet, the women in our lineage were cooking at home as well and maintaining the household chores. Food culture and recipe development has been co-opted by corporations.

World War II was the first time large numbers of women worked in factories to supply goods and munitions to our men overseas fighting. Once the men came home, a large number of women did not return to working just in home for the benefit of their families alone. My grandmother worked a full-time job at a discount department store less than 5 miles from our house. She would come home everyday for lunch and either start working on our dinner for the evening or check on what she had begun cooking that morning. She did all the grocery shopping and nearly all the house cleaning as well. She always had a backyard garden much like our neighbors and the family just to the West of our place would plan their garden with her so that we would plant some items and they planted other things so we could trade across the fence.

If you have ever planted vegetables you will find that in a good summer's growth, you will end up growing more than your family can consume so trading harvests was to the benefit of both our families. We probably were the only yard in our area that had corn and strawberries growing.

Weather or not you even roast something on a barbecue grill yourself, once the fire is lit, your nose instantly tells you that something special is happening. We first dine with our nose, then with our eyes and ears, then with our mouth, then lastly with our brain. Fire is the beginning of all of that. A grill, a stove, a smoker, a dehydrator, all started with fire.

Microwaving is something very different. Microwaves excite the molecules within the food starting at the middle of the item whereas fire begins to change the outer layers of the food then the heat is transformed toward the inner parts of the item, so in many ways microwaves are the exact opposite of the natural cooking experience of fire cooking. Microwaving food is creating yet another bit of distance between the food and the cook and dinner.

Food is life. Food gathering and hunting takes a life from an animal or plant that then gives life sustaining essence to those who eat it. It is the food chain, it is primal and essential. When you create barriers between yourself and your food, you leave yourself very vulnerable to a host of problems of health and spirit. Food is ritualistic. It has a rhythm, a constant, a variable, a language that is universally understood beyond any barrier of culture and geography. Welcoming guests into your home always has an offering of food from the host, this is a gift of life, a wish that you strive beyond the visit, an honoring the guest, and this is why it is often considered very rude to refuse the gift of food. The gift of food or drink has the element of careful preparation, expense, and culture transmission.

Fire can be essential to survival in the wilderness, it can warm you in times of cold weather, it can transform foods into cuisine, it's were we began to transmit history through storytelling, and it's where we gathered for safety. All of society began around a fire and continued to grow with cooking. Cooking is as human as language and protection of offspring. Without the skill of creating fires there would not be society, we would still be nomadic, we still be small groups of people, hunting and gathering. It is through fire and agriculture that society is formed. We are no longer a herd of humans but a society with universal truths, no matter the language spoken, mathematics and food need not be explained in order to be understood. Food can be simply about satisfying a need or it can be the catalysis for communion with others or elevated into art.

Food is medicine, food is art, food is humanity, food is society, and food is life giving need. I tell my students all the time that whenever you begin to rely upon a corporation to feed you, you are in trouble. The corporation is a faceless entity that haves laws that treat it like a type of person, but this pseudo 'person' only has one propose, to gain profit. Real people produce food for sustaining life, nourishing the body, transmitting emotions, warding off illness, creating links between generations, a ritual, a communion between people, a humility as all people need to eat, from kings to peasants, it levels all of us to the same place as we all eat.

Enjoy your meals instead of just consuming. Begin to gain understanding of what food really is to us humans and seek out how it can be transformed, into art, or into profit. When profit is the only purpose, when a corporation begins its life, the art isn't for the goodness of the corporation, it is solely for the benefit of humanity, therefore, I contend, that the corporations of food kill the art that is at the heart of the chef, turning them into scientists and machines of profit. Corporations have continuously made food changes to create more an more profit, more and more consumers, more and more addictive people hooked on their products, depended people upon purchasing their products, instead of creators of quality products. Industrialization of food has created many societal problems, illness, addiction. Like any created factory, once turned on, it wants to continue its work. A machine, when it stops, essentially dies once it is turned off, and death isn't preferred, by anyone or anything. Stop bowing to the gods of profit and seek the nutrients that will sustain and enrich your life.