In Culinary School I was the
jerk who piped up all the time and said: "please, don’t use the word
‘philosophy’ when you mean ‘ideals’ or ‘guiding principles.’ I
was once a philosophy student. A ‘philosophy’ is a very rigorous
set of values, arrived at by methodical thought and disciplined,
scientific measurement. A philosophy isn’t an ‘opinion.’ It
is a way of life." I was insanely popular in culinary school,
obviously.
Over the years the distinction has blurred and I see that I do have my
own emergent philosophy of food. Some parts are cogitated and
some are completely gut-level. But it indeed has become a "way of
life" for me. I feel that what we put in our bodies represents
how we relate to the world. Sometimes we eat with awareness and
reverence and sometimes without care. Sometimes we are denied
food, sometimes we are coerced into eating too much. What we eat
allies us to some but alienates us from others. If we don’t eat,
we die. If we don’t ever eat with a sense of awe for the amazing
powers that came together to make that food, I think we die a little
bit. That is why it is of great importance that I understand the
where and why of food, and make wise decisions about the foods I eat
and serve.