Synopses & Reviews
"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are." --Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Every living thing needs food to survive, but for humans, food has a much deeper and more complex significance. This beautifully illustrated, thought-provoking book explores the role of food in our lives, going on location to thirteen ethnic communities across the United States and examining, through stories, pictures, and interviews with food experts, the many ways that food is an expression of our humanity. It parallels a three-part PBS series hosted by acclaimed New York chef Marcus Samuelsson.
From an Italian-American wedding in San Diego to a Mexican-American family's Christmastime tradition of making holiday tamales, The Meaning of Food delves into the ways that food binds us to family and culture. It looks in on a Jamai Shasthi ceremony, in which foods promoting fertility are fed to the sons-in-law of a Bengali family in California. It accompanies a woman to South Carolina's coastal lowlands as she explores her Geechee heritage, making red rice with a culinary historian. It enters the kitchen of an East Texas Czech family as they prepare for this year's kolache bake-off. It explains the anthropological signficance behind these and other vignettes, revealing the importance of culinary tradition and celebrating our cultural diversity as expressed through food.
The Meaning of Food speaks for the revival of the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure, culture, and community. With 15 recipes, including several developed by Marcus Samuelsson specifically for the series, and more than one hundred color photos, many of them captured from the series footage, it will be a wonderful addition to the library of anyone interested in food and culture.
"There is communion of much more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk." --M.F.K. Fisher
Synopsis
A popular anthropology of food, with vignettes from 20 different ethnic communities, beautiful color photos, and 15 recipes
Synopsis
A popular anthropology of food, with vignettes from 20 different ethnic communities, beautiful color photos, and 15 recipes
Synopsis
No matter who we are or where we live, our lives revolve around food. Much more than simple sustenance, food is part of our culture and our traditions. Everything about eating - including what we eat, how it tastes, who prepares it, and who's at the table - is a form of communication rich with meaning.
This beautifully illustrated, thought-provoking book explores the role of food in our lives. Paralleling a three-part PBS series hosted by acclaimed New York chef Marcus Samuelsson, The Meaning of Food goes on location to twenty ethnic communities across the United States and examines, through stories, pictures, and interviews, the many ways that food is an expression of our humanity. It shows how our attitudes, practices, and rituals around food reflect our most basic beliefs about our world and ourselves. Included in this book are the recipes from the television series and 200 color photographs, many of them captured from the series footage.
From an Italian-American wedding in San Diego, to a Mexican-American family's Christmastime tradition of making tamales, to a South Carolina woman's exploration of her Geechee heritage, The Meaning of Food sheds light on who we are as Americans.
"We do not sit at the table only to eat, but to eat together."
- plutarch
The complete three-hour PBS broadcast of The Meaning of Food is available from PBS Home Video on DVD and VHS. Order your copy anytime at www.shoppbs.com or by calling 1-800-645-4727.
About the Author
Patricia Harris and
David Lyon are the authors of several books and hundreds of articles about food and travel, including several articles and radio pieces about food anthropology. They were the founding restaurant reviewers for Microsoft's
Boston Sidewalk. They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sue McLaughlin, president of Pie in the Sky Productions, is the series creator and executive producer of the PBS series The Meaning of Food. She has more than a decade of experience overseeing large-scale national and international documentary series. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
Table of Contents
Episode Segment Order (bigger stories in CAPS)Show 1: Food & Life
How important food is symbolically and
psychologically. Food is Mom. Food is home.
Food is a symbol of love, life, being alive,
continuation, propagation, joy, grace, and hope.
*ITALIAN WEDDING (San Diego)
*Jamai Shasthi - Bengali Fertility Ritual
*Breastfeeding
*Bringing Food Through Customs (NY)
*Nigerian Cabbies' Lunchtruck (Chicago)
*"The Table"/NASA
*LAST MEALS (TX)
*RAMADAN FASTING (WA)
*TEREZIN (cookbook kept in
concentration camp) (NY)
*VIOS GREEK RESTAURANT (Seattle)
Show 2: Food & Culture
We define ourselves as members of
particular cultures by what we eat.
*GEECHEE RICE (Charleston)
*Montage of Food Signs
*Durian
*INDIAN WHALING (WA)
*HAWAIIAN TARO (Hawaii)
*Hawaiian "Local Food" (Los Vegas)
*Burgers
*TEXAS-CZECH KOLACHES (TX)
Show 3: Food & Family
Food also defines our families (including all kinds of ad hoc families): the relationships within families, the rules within families.
*Diner (Chicago)
*GROWING UP IN THE FAMILY'S CHINESE RESTAURANT, Part 1 (Missouri)
*Moms and Cooking
*Obento (Japanese lunchboxes for kindergartners)
*TAMALE MAKING (TX)
*BOOYA COMMUNAL STEW (St. Paul)* SAMOAN FUNERAL (Tacoma, WA) l*GROWING UP IN THE FAMILY'S CHINESE RESTAURANT, Part 2 (Missouri)