Hey all! Today's post is
going to be a bit different from what I normally do, but I think that it will
be beneficial to anybody considering a career in the food world, and it will
also tell you a bit more about my life (because everybody is dying to know what
I'm thinking about).
I've had to do a lot of
decision making over the past year, what with graduating high school, going to
college, and then transferring to a different major in a different college.
Starting the year as a fashion marketing major in NYC and ending it studying culinary
arts in Philly is kind of a crazy jump, and looking back, it's really making me
think about how I came to make that decision. I was primarily interested in
figuring out what influenced me to change the path that my future was going
down. I know that I wasn't solely responsible for my decisions, that I am
essentially a "product of the times," but what were the factors that
made me that product? We are so influenced by media and popular culture today;
I knew it would be self-indulgent to say that I was different, that I could
resist the flow of the crowd. So, how had the recent insurgence of food
in the media shaped the way I value food and cooking, and the decisions I have
made for my future?
In order to find the
answer to my question, I need to backtrack a bit, to explain how I made my
first decision (even if I did quickly abandon it). Marketing, in its most
simple form, is an application of English. I have always loved reading and
writing, and for a great part of my life, I knew that I was going to major in
something related to that. It's what I was good at. Once, a friend told me that
"words are [my] thing," and it was true. The process of creating
something beautiful out of a string of something nearly insignificant was so
fulfilling. This desire to create things is also how I discovered my love of
cooking; it's just like writing, except 100% more tangible. Writing and cooking were same in the sense that I could make something
that was completely my own, and share it with others. I have this skewed idea
that cooking is my way of giving back, because most of the time I don't do it
for myself. I cook for friends for the reasons that most writers write for
people: I do it to open their eyes to new tastes and ideas and to educate them
on things that I have more knowledge of. There is no better feeling than watching somebody smile after their first bite of your hard work. I don't post pictures and recipes online for self-validation, I do it to open up exploration for others.
We are constantly bombarded
with images and writings on food and recipes and chefs that glamorize the
culinary industry. This is especially true for social networking sites such as
Instagram, where 60% of people who have accounts admit to following food
related accounts (Schumacher). The constant exposure to food in the
media, whether that be in television, print, or online, has made me realize
that I can combine my passions and share knowledge of cooking with so many more
people than has ever been possible before. In 2015, I can post
pictures, videos, tweets, and most importantly, I can write on my blog. However,
I would have never started this venture, or my venture into the food industry,
had I not been influenced and inspired.
If I think back, all the
way back to the pre-Instagram days, I can see how food in the media influenced
me even then. I remember watching Jamie Oliver on The Naked Chef, and some show
with two old ladies on a motorcycle. When everybody else was dreaming about
Johnny Depp and Beyoncé, I was asking my mom to put Nigella on. When other girls played with Barbies, I was begging my mom to let me make "soup". Now, this soup was always a nauseating combination of apples, water, and cayenne pepper, but at least I was starting my practice at an early age! In a sixth-grade English class, I wrote a letter to Jamie Oliver, the details of
which I'm not quite sure of anymore, but I still have his response letter
tucked away in my house somewhere. When I think about it, Jamie Oliver has been
a huge influence on my life from the initial inklings of my passion to this
very minute. His efforts to reshape the way we view food in both the US and in
Europe are groundbreaking and iconic, beginning with his Food Foundation, which
works to combat the high levels of childhood obesity in the US (Oliver). Oliver
even created Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which is a television show where
he displays his efforts in Huntington, West Virginia. Although the work he put
in for that town did not create much success, the show caused a stir when
people realized that "Huntington, WV" was synonymous with
"Anywhere, USA" (Rivage-Seul 284). 
Seeing the way that
Jamie used his knowledge of food to help others inspired me, because it wasn't
anything people were expecting out of him. In the mind of the public, chefs are
there for cooking, so why not surprise everybody and do more than feed your restaurant
patrons? After realizing his positive impact on the world, I started to find a
way to incorporate food education into most of my schools projects. To be fair, when I was at FIT I spent most of the time in my crummy little kitchen, creating new things for my roommates to try, but when I did do schoolwork, it always involved food. I wanted
people to know that it was what I cared about, because food education is
something that you only care about when it's shoved in your face. When I was
prompted to create a brochure in my graphic design class, I made one about
Jamie's Food Foundation. When I was asked to write a transfer essay to get into
Drexel, I wrote about food and its importance in my life. Although I will admit
that I write these papers partly for my own personal enjoyment, I do it mostly
because I want to spark the reaction in others that I felt the first time I
realized how important food is. I revere food, and I never would have felt this
way had I not seen the amazing accomplishments of powerhouses in the
culinary world. 
My idols influenced me,
when I saw that they were doing good. I have also been heavily influence by the
books that I read, which as of late have been mostly about food. When I was
younger, I loved reading books about fantasy worlds, and I would try to mimic
that type of writing in my own work, creating stories about fairies and magic. My
interests have slowly been creeping toward tastier topics as I’ve gotten older.
In the past 15 years there has been
almost exponential growth on the amount of food books, magazines, and
television shows that have been created and, in the case of the literature,
sold (Peterson ). So, now I read books about food, and in turn I talk and write
about food. If you want proof of that, read my blog. And if you know me in
real life, you're probably all too used to my diatribes on different
ingredients: "Did you know that there's a lot of fraud in the olive oil industry
(Mueller 10)?" "Did you know that Canola oil is made from rape seeds
(Sax)?" "Did you know that coconut oil is the only vegetable
fat that is primarily saturated?" I know that my friends tune me out, I can see their eyes glaze over when I because
even if it was news to them, they don't
care. Sometimes they recall these facts for the sole purpose of making fun of me, which usually occurs right before they take a bite of something with hydrogenated oils, or right before they pour some cheap generic olive oil into a pan. Even so, I refuse to stop, because it’s so important to learn things that
can be applied to your own life, and to teach them when you can.
If there is one author
who can be held responsible for mass education on nutrition and food, it is
Michael Pollan, who boiled the basics of eating down into just seven words: “Eat
food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” (Food
Rules, xv). He takes a deep look at the “western diet” and reveals the
raging ignorance that American’s have in regards to their food and the way they
eat it (In Defense of Food). Pollan’s
books are now required readings in some high schools, and this shows me that a
revolution is not far off, if it isn’t already here yet. If everybody took a
little time to read his work, we would all be much more informed on the links
between food and bodily health, and we would all eat much more “real food” (Unhappy Meals, 1). 
There are books and
there are celebrity chefs with their own vast empires, but neither of these can
touch the extremity of the online culinary presence. Not only does it tie
together the literature and the celebrities, but it adds new mediums that we
have never before had access to. With a quick search you can find a 6-second
video of chefs chopping onions at the speed of light. An even quicker search
can find you countless Instagram accounts dedicated to pizza, bagels, ice
cream, or just food in general! There is no limit to what you can do with food
online, and this emerging world has completely glamorized the culinary industry
in my eyes, and in the eyes of the countless others who have decided to pursue
it as a career. Although it is true that food in the media is highly idealized
(Mcgee 2), it may end up having a
positive effect on the standards people have for the food they consume. People
now have the ability to compare the food they eat with food eaten by people all
over the world. Instagram has exposed us to new types of cuisines, ways of
cooking, and recipes that we may never have discovered on our own, and there is
no way of describing how much we, as a culture and a species, have benefitted
from that. On a much smaller scale, I would never have been able to see food as
a viable future for myself had I not seen so many other success stories. Maybe
that says something about my lack of confidence, but I think it speaks more to
the greater range of options we have now because of a better flow of
information.
So many factors have gone into the food renaissance we
are currently living in, but there is still more that needs to be done for a
true revolution, and that may be the most important factor behind my decision. In
order to have a true food revolution we must take steps to change the way
healthcare providers view food, extend healthcare beyond the hospitals and into
the community, create a sustainable food source based on local resources (Cohen
162). These are just a few among the many things that need to be accomplished if
we want to live healthier lives, and I’m making it my goal to educate people to
the best of my ability, even if that just means cooking for people in a restaurant.
Any move is a good move in this fight, and that is why I am doing what I am
doing. Every time I step into the kitchen I am inspired, for myself and for every potential viewer of my work. My plan is to use my cooking skills and my writing skills to reach
people and inspire them in just the way that I have been inspired, and
hopefully we can see a change at some point in our lifetime.
In the spirit of this essay, I would like to thank you all for helping me carry out my dream. Those of you who read what I write are unwittingly making me feel like the most successful girl in the world, and you are just as important as the content that goes into my blog. You guys are like the best sandwich recipe in the whole world. #elkinthekitchen
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