Paper 2, Draft 1:
What is the value of food? This question can be answered in different ways depending on who it is asked to. Our English class has read multiple articles about the values of food, the importance of food and we wrote about our favorite meals. In “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Micheal Pollan, it compares food channels from the past to the food channels on television now. But it also talked about how much home cooked meals has changed over time and how food culture has changed for many different reasons. Pollan shows us that the food culture has changed from the past compared to the present. Another article was “The End of Food” by Lizzie Widdicombe which talked about a man named Robert Rhinehart who made a food replacement drink and the importance and value of food in our lives. After reading three students food for thought essays, I believe that one of the main patterns that I noticed was emotional significance. In all three essays it talked about their emotional connection to the meal and how the meal reminded them about their personal family memories. I believe that Pollan’s article fits with the patterns I have noticed in other students essays because he talks about how home cooked meals are declining and how they were once a part of our culture, which was a good thing.
Pollan shows us that food channels have drastically changed over the years. In the past they have been live cooking channels to help people cook good meals for family dinner time, but as the years past it has changed to pre recorded cooking shows and competitive cooking shows. Pollen expressed the differences between pre recorded and live cooking shows. On pre recorded shows, they would cut the mistakes made and the time waiting while the person is cooking and not show them because they want it to be quick, keep people interested and want people to think it is easy. On live cooking shows they show everything no matter what happens. Pollan uses one example that compares live shows to pre recorded shows which is called “The French Chef” and the main chef was Julia Child. “While Julia waited for the butter foam to subside in the saute pan, you waited, too, precisely as long, listening to Julia’s improvised patter over the hiss of her pan…” In this quote it expresses how live tv shows everything and makes it more genuine and realistic. It is a good thing to make cooking look real because cooking is not an easy thing and people sometimes make mistakes when cooking. In real life cooking takes time and Julia Child showed the real and genuine thing.
Project 2, Draft 2:
What is the value of food? This question can be answered in different ways depending on who it is asked to. Our English class has read multiple articles about the values of food, the importance of food and we wrote about our favorite meals. In “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Micheal Pollan, it compares food channels from the past to the food channels on television now. But it also talked about how much home cooked meals has changed over time and how food culture has changed for many different reasons. Pollan shows us that the food culture has changed from the past compared to the present. After reading three students food for thought essays, I believe that one of the main patterns that I noticed was emotional significance. In all three essays it talked about their emotional connection to the meal and how the meal reminded them about their personal family memories. I believe that Pollan’s article fits with the patterns I have noticed in other students essays because he talks about how home cooked meals are declining and how they were once a part of our culture, which was a good thing. Thesis: people do not make home cooked meals anymore, many reasons why,their important
Pollan shows us that food channels have drastically changed over the years. In the past they have been live cooking channels to help people cook good meals for family dinner time, but as the years past it has changed to pre recorded cooking shows and competitive cooking shows. Pollen expressed the differences between pre recorded and live cooking shows. On pre recorded shows, they would cut the mistakes made and the time waiting while the person is cooking and not show them because they want it to be quick, keep people interested and want people to think it is easy. On live cooking shows they show everything no matter what happens. Pollan uses one example that compares live shows to pre recorded shows which is called “The French Chef” and the main chef was Julia Child. “While Julia waited for the butter foam to subside in the saute pan, you waited, too, precisely as long, listening to Julia’s improvised patter over the hiss of her pan…” In this quote it expresses how live tv shows everything and makes it more genuine and realistic. It is a good thing to make cooking look real because cooking is not an easy thing and people sometimes make mistakes when cooking. In real life cooking takes time and Julia Child showed the real and genuine thing. Cooking home meals take time and people make mistakes so the food channels in the past showed that and when people watched them and cooked with them it probably helped them to see how long it was going to take making the dish. The food channels and competition food shows today are not the same because more things are dramatic and people can not really learn anything anymore. In Pollan’s article he asked his chef friend about the Food Network and he compared watching the Food Network to watching the NBA, “How much do you learn about playing basketball by watching the N.B.A.?” (pg.10). His chef friend is saying you can learn to cook from watching the Food Network as much as you can learn how to play basketball by watching it on tv because it is not on tv to teach you, it is on tv for entertainment. People lost interest in watching live cooking shows to cook family meals and started watching for the entertainment portion of tv shows, especially the competition cooking shows.
Both Micheal Pollan and John Meuse agree that cooking gives people meaning. In Pollan’s article, Julia Child talks about how cooking brought meaning to her life and before she did not know what to do. “… Julia (who like Julie had worked as a secretary) was at a loss as to what to do with her life until she realized that what she liked to do best was eat. So she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu and learned how to cook.” (pg 3). Cooking brought her meaning because she did not know what to do before and it basically gave her a project that led her to success. She talked about how she was happily married and had everything except something she was passionate or the lack of a life project. In John Meuse’s food for thought essay, he talks about how food and cooking has meaning in his life because he comes from a plus sized family. In John’s essay he says “Meals are about much more than satisfying a pang of hunger, they are essential in making personal connections and relationships. If not for eating, then meals would be an excuse to interact with others on a deeper level in everyday life.”, which means he found meaning in a meal his grandmother cooks for a family tradition.
Final Draft:
What is the value of food? This question can be answered in different ways depending on who it is asked to. Our English class has read multiple articles about the values of food, the importance of food and we wrote about our favorite meals. In the article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Micheal Pollan, it compares food channels from the past to the food channels on television now. But it also talked about how much home cooked meals has changed over time and how food culture has changed for many different reasons. Pollan shows us that the food culture has changed from the past compared to the present. After reading three students food for thought essays, I believe that one of the main patterns that I noticed was emotional significance. In all three essays it talked about their emotional connection to the meal and how the meal reminded them about their personal family memories. I believe that Pollan’s article fits with the patterns I have noticed in other students essays because he talks about how home cooked meals are declining and how they were once a part of our culture, which was a good thing. Although our food culture is changing over time, the emotional significance still remains an important part of it.
Both Pollan and Bryan McGarth agree that cooking can bring families together. In McGrath’s food essay he talks about how his brother loves their grandmother’s honey baked ham and how he thinks of the dish as a sentimental family memory. “ This dish resembles a sense of comfort for myself and for my family as we do not gather very often throughout the year and the idea of the honey baked ham is the idea of a sense of a gathered and loving family that is not present regularly throughout my life. The one person who feels and understands this same reaction is my ham-loving counterpart, my brother.”, he enjoys his favorite meal not only because he likes the taste but also how it brings his family together. He likes how he can connect with his brother about the dish. In comparison, when Pollan was talking about how his mother would cook dishes she saw on tv and have him and his sisters. Then eventually he watched cooking shows with her. Pollan explained that “…but my mother would usually test these out on me and my sisters earlier in the week, and a few of the others-including the boeuf bourguignon, which I especially loved-actually made it into heavy weeknight rotation”(1). It became a tradition to have his mom make the food she saw on television and have her kids try it. Pollan and McGarth both express how cooking brought their families together and their good memories from it.
Both Micheal Pollan and John Meuse agree that cooking gives people meaning. In Pollan’s article, Julia Child talks about how cooking brought meaning to her life and before she did not know what to do. “… Julia (who like Julie had worked as a secretary) was at a loss as to what to do with her life until she realized that what she liked to do best was eat. So she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu and learned how to cook.” (3). Cooking brought her meaning because she did not know what to do before and it basically gave her a project that led her to success. She talked about how she was happily married and had everything except something she was passionate or the lack of a life project. In John Meuse’s food for thought essay, he talks about how food and cooking has meaning in his life because he comes from a plus sized family. In John’s essay he says “Meals are about much more than satisfying a pang of hunger, they are essential in making personal connections and relationships. If not for eating, then meals would be an excuse to interact with others on a deeper level in everyday life.”, which means he found meaning in a meal his grandmother cooks for a long standing family tradition. In my mind, it is not about making personal connections, it is about keeping the ones they already have. The meaning he found was with the family tradition of holding the memories they had together. His favorite meal was spaghetti Bolognese and it has so much meaning to him because it has such an emotional significance to him and it marked a turning point in his life. These two articles talk about how much cooking and food plays such an important role in their lives, which means that cooking can bring meaning to people’s lives.
Both Micheal Pollan and Katelyn Smith argue that people do not cook at home anymore for their families. In Pollan’s article he talks about the decline in home cooking and what some of the causes were. “For many years now, Americans have been putting in longer hours at work and enjoying less time at home” (14). For Pollan, this is one of the reasons home cooking is decline. In my mind, I agree with him because he talks about how usually women would be at home cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids but as the years past, women have been getting jobs and either the men are cooking or they are working too. But he said home cooking shows in the present have changed from the cooking shows in the past which was one reason home cooking was declining and I believe Katelyn’s food for thought essay argues with that idea. “ We learn things watching these cooking competitions, but they’re not things about how to cook. There are no recipes to follow; the contests fly by much too fast for the viewer to take in any practical tips…”(9). Pollan believes that since the cooking shows have changed to the point where people watch for entertainment instead of learning how to cook, it caused people to not cook at home as much in the past. In the past they have been live cooking channels to help people cook good meals for family dinner time, but as the years past it has changed to pre recorded cooking shows and competitive cooking shows expressed the differences between pre recorded shows like “Chopped” and live cooking shows. On pre recorded shows, they would cut the mistakes made and the time waiting while the person is cooking and not show them because they want it to be quick, keep people interested and want people to think it is easy. On live cooking shows they show everything no matter what happens. Pollan uses one example that compares live shows to pre recorded shows which is called “The French Chef” and the main chef was Julia Child. Pollan mentioned how live tv shows everything and makes it more genuine and realistic. In contrast, Katelyn’s essay talks about her favorite meal being her dad’s homemade shepherd’s pie and her emotional significance to the meal. But one important thing she talks about is how her dad taught her how to cook the shepherd’s pie and how much it means to her. “My dad’s homemade shepherd’s pie is more than just a pie, it’s a staple of our relationship. Growing up my dad couldn’t do a lot due to being sick, but every once in a while we would cook something together… I was in the second grade the first time he taught me how to make it and from then on that was our special meal that only he and I made together.” She explains that because her dad was sick and could not do much but was still able to teach her how to cook her favorite meal, it meant so much to her that she cherished that cooking moment. I believe that since she had strong connections with someone who taught her how to cook, it made her enjoy it more and kept it locked in her memories. From reading Katelyn’s essay, I think people do not have to learn how to cook from the tv because they use their phones, computers, and other electronics for entertainment. They can learn how to cook from other people that they have emotional connection with parents to keep home cooking in this generation.
Although home cooking is declining but it has an emotional significance in our food culture. Cooking is one reason people can connect and make personal memories. The food channels have changed and people watch them for entertainment instead of a learning experience but people can learn how to cook from their parents or someone they know. I believe that if someone who you have an emotional connection with teaches you something, then you remember it more and have a better connection to it. I believe the bigger picture of Pollan’s articles and the three food for thought essays is how home cooking has changed but it still matters in our culture. It matters because it shaped the way we think about family dinners and it has emotional significance to people.
