Good Taste: Food for thought
On March 27, I sobbed profusely as I came to terms with the death of my sourdough starter. Though I’d revived Doughby from several near-death experiences, this time was different: his usual mix of bacteria and wild yeast had come into contact with mold. As any sourdough parent knows, mold is game over.
Like much of the Internet, I created my sourdough starter during the first months of the pandemic. From feeding your starter every day to spending over 24 hours preparing a loaf, sourdough is a labor of love. During a time when we all felt starved for community, it felt comforting to be able to care for Doughby.
Three years later, as I cried over the death of an inanimate object on my bedroom floor, even I could recognize it was all borderline ridiculous. But somewhere along the way, Doughby had become a real part of my life.
Isn’t that the joy of food? Food is woven into the fabric of our lives, both as a daily ritual and a celebration of important moments. From comfort foods to specialty dishes, food makes up much of who we are.
When I lost my grandmother in 2019, I was immediately struck by all the things we would never be able to do together. There would be no more argument-filled card games or afternoon tea breaks. She would never again walk into my room and giggle as she asked me if the haircut she’d given herself looked even.
It wasn’t until later that I realized how much I would miss all the ways she poured her love into the food she made. On special days, she would make my favorite pulao, a spiced rice dish she always topped with grated beets to give it the most beautiful pink hue.
Every time I crave her pulao and raita, I feel the acute pain of never again being able to listen to one of her poems or chat with her about the latest Bollywood scandals.
Though I’ll never have pulao exactly the way my grandma made it, whenever I eat it, I smile as I imagine her rushing through the kitchen to prepare my favorite meal. Cooking and enjoying her famous dishes are ways to connect with the care and compassion she brought to my life.
Considering the central role food plays in our lives, it’s not surprising how often we receive messaging about the ways in which we should engage with it. In a country overrun with diet culture and fatphobia, having a healthy relationship with food is near impossible.
A Harvard study showed that between 2007 and 2016, implicit bias against fat people grew, though all other biases – from race to sexual orientation to disability – decreased over this time. Even as we live in a society focused on body positivity, fatphobia is on the rise.
Despite the plethora of environmental and genetic factors that impact weight, social media and celebrity culture feed us the idea that there is a give and take between eating and attaining the “perfect” body. In the infamous words of Kate Moss, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
By assigning moral value to eating, we promote these fractured relationships with food that are far too common. The constant barrage of fatphobic propaganda and body policing paired with the belief that fatness is a personal failing creates an environment in which eating disorders thrive.
As someone who grew up in the early aughts, I’m no stranger to jumping on fad diets to contort my body into the shape society deems acceptable. Writing this column has been cathartic for me, a reminder that food is what we make of it, both individually and collectively. Food can be joy and celebration just as easily as it can be eating disorders and diet culture.
Over these last two years, I have tried to put into words what food means to me. Food is the lens through which I see the world. Food is an opportunity to understand the world we live in. It lays the foundation for us to process our emotions, create community, and recognize and respond to social injustice.
As I say farewell to Good Taste, I’m reminded that food is as personal as it is political. I hope you all join me in embracing food as a source of comfort and an agent of social change.
Reena Somani is a graduate student writing about food and its social implications. Her column, “Good Taste,” runs every other Wednesday.