Draft 1
Steve Rife
Eng. 110 H2
Prof Miller
31 October 2018
The Journey into Food
Food is the center of many activities and holidays. Can you remember a time when you celebrated Christmas or thanksgiving without food? The article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Michael Pollan is about how society’s views have changed from those back fifty, sixty years ago. Back then cooking a meal from scratch was the normal and only thing to do. Now you can go to the grocery store and buy and frozen pizza and pop it into the oven instead of actually having to make the dough and the sauce before you cook it. The article explains how now; most people look at cooking a home cooked meal from scratch as a special occasion. Pollan talks about Julia Child who is a chef on the TV show “The French Chef”. Her show was set up in a familiar setting, a home kitchen. When she cooked a meal she would start from meal prep to the finish product. The sound of the pots and pans smashing together made Pollen feel like it was less of him watching TV and more like being in the kitchen himself. Now shows like Hells Kitchen are both for entertainment as well as cooking rather only focusing on the cooking as with Childs show.
After reading and analyzing essays written by Grace Frohock, Eric Langland, and Jacob Hickey along with the piece written by Pollan there is a distinct pattern that is starting to form. Pollan talks about how cooking shows today are more for entertainment purposes rather than learning how to cook a full meal from scratch like what is showed in the Julia Child cooking shows. He claims that the practice of cooking a meal from scratch is starting to diminish. After reading the three peer essays it shows that this is not the case, in fact it is the opposite. All three peers talked about how preparing a home cooked meal with their family are memories that they will cherish forever. When they eat their favorite meals all of those memories come back to them when they eat their favorite dish. All three of the dishes are prepared from scratch, as they create the meal they would sing and dance together. Eric Langland talked about putting on Frank Sinatra in the background as they cooked. Grace Frohock explained that having breakfast with her family on Saturdays was tradition in her house and everyone knows you can not break tradition.
Draft 2
Steve Rife
Eng. 110 H2
Prof Miller
31 October 2018
The Journey into Food
Food is the center of many activities and holidays. Can you remember a time when you celebrated Christmas or thanksgiving without food? The article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Michael Pollan is about how society’s views have changed from those back fifty, sixty years ago. Back then cooking a meal from scratch was the normal and only thing to do. Now you can go to the grocery store and buy and frozen pizza and pop it into the oven instead of actually having to make the dough and the sauce before you cook it. The article explains how now; most people look at cooking a home cooked meal from scratch as a special occasion. Pollan talks about Julia Child who is a chef on the TV show “The French Chef”. Her show was set up in a familiar setting, a home kitchen. When she cooked a meal she would start from meal prep to the finish product. The sound of the pots and pans smashing together made Pollen feel like it was less of him watching TV and more like being in the kitchen himself. Now shows like Hells Kitchen are both for entertainment as well as cooking rather only focusing on the cooking as with Childs show.
After reading and analyzing essays written by Grace Frohock, Eric Langland, and Jacob Hickey along with the piece written by Pollan there is a distinct pattern that is starting to form. Pollan talks about how cooking shows today are more for entertainment purposes rather than learning how to cook a full meal from scratch like what is showed in the Julia Child cooking shows. He claims that the practice of cooking a meal from scratch is starting to diminish. After reading the three peer essays it shows that this is not the case, in fact it is the opposite. All three peers talked about how preparing a home cooked meal with their family are memories that they will cherish forever. When they eat their favorite meals all of those memories come back to them when they eat their favorite dish. All three of the dishes are prepared from scratch, as they create the meal they would sing and dance together. Eric Langland talked about putting on Frank Sinatra in the background as they cooked. Grace Frohock explained that having breakfast with her family on Saturdays was tradition in her house and everyone knows you can not break tradition.
Pollan brings up a French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s who claimed that cooking makes us who we are. Meaning that cooking our meals instead of eating everything raw separates us humans from other animals. “It was the discovery of cooking by our early ancestors, not tool making or language or meat eating that made us human. By providing our primates forebears with a more energy dense and easy to digest diet, cooked food altered the course of human evolution, allowing our brains to grow bigger and our guts to shrink.” (Pollan 17). Cooking our food makes it easier to chew it and it unlocks more nutrients when the food is cooked. That gave us more time to focus on other things. Cooking food not only gives people a meal but it gives an excuse to get together with family and friends. Preparing and cooking a meal creates an endless amount of activates centered around food.
Pollan explains how cooking a homemade meal is drastically falling in popularity among people. The only aspect of cooking that is actually rising is outdoor grilling. “Chunks of animal flesh seared over an open fire: grilling is cooking at its most fundamental and explicit, the transformation of the raw into the cooked right before our eyes. It makes a certain sense that the grill would be gaining adherents at the very moment when cooking meals and eating them together is fading from the culture.” (Pollan 17). Outdoor grilling is a great excuse to get people together to eat a meal.
Draft 3
Steve Rife
Eng. 110 H2
Prof Miller
31 October 2018
The Journey into Food
Food is the center of many activities and holidays. Can you remember a time when you celebrated Christmas or thanksgiving without food? The article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Michael Pollan is about how society’s views have changed from those back fifty, sixty years ago. Back then cooking a meal from scratch was the normal and only thing to do. Now you can go to the grocery store and buy and frozen pizza and pop it into the oven instead of actually having to make the dough and the sauce before you cook it. The article explains how now; most people look at cooking a home cooked meal from scratch as a special occasion. Pollan talks about Julia Child who is a chef on the TV show “The French Chef”. Her show was set up in a familiar setting, a home kitchen. When she cooked a meal she would start from meal prep to the finish product. The sound of the pots and pans smashing together made Pollen feel like it was less of him watching TV and more like being in the kitchen himself. Now shows like Hells Kitchen are both for entertainment as well as cooking rather only focusing on the cooking as with Childs show.
After reading and analyzing essays written by Grace Frohock, Eric Langland, and Jacob Hickey along with the piece written by Pollan there is a distinct pattern that is starting to form. Pollan talks about how cooking shows today are more for entertainment purposes rather than learning how to cook a full meal from scratch like what is showed in the Julia Child cooking shows. He claims that the practice of cooking a meal from scratch is starting to diminish. After reading the three peer essays it shows that this is not the case, in fact it is the opposite. All three peers talked about how preparing a home cooked meal with their family are memories that they will cherish forever. When they eat their favorite meals all of those memories come back to them when they eat their favorite dish. All three of the dishes are prepared from scratch, as they create the meal they would sing and dance together. Eric Langland talked about putting on Frank Sinatra in the background as they cooked. Grace Frohock explained that having breakfast with her family on Saturdays was tradition in her house and everyone knows you can not break tradition.
Pollan brings up a French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s who claimed that cooking makes us who we are. Meaning that cooking our meals instead of eating everything raw separates us humans from other animals. “It was the discovery of cooking by our early ancestors, not tool making or language or meat eating that made us human. By providing our primates forebears with a more energy dense and easy to digest diet, cooked food altered the course of human evolution, allowing our brains to grow bigger and our guts to shrink.” (Pollan 17). Cooking our food makes it easier to chew it and it unlocks more nutrients when the food is cooked. That gave us more time to focus on other things. Cooking food not only gives people a meal but it gives an excuse to get together with family and friends. Preparing and cooking a meal creates an endless amount of activates centered around food.
Pollan explains how cooking a homemade meal is drastically falling in popularity among people. The only aspect of cooking that is actually rising is outdoor grilling. “Chunks of animal flesh seared over an open fire: grilling is cooking at its most fundamental and explicit, the transformation of the raw into the cooked right before our eyes. It makes a certain sense that the grill would be gaining adherents at the very moment when cooking meals and eating them together is fading from the culture.” (Pollan 17). Outdoor grilling is a great excuse to get people together to eat a meal.
Grace Frohock wrote an article called “The Saturday Morning Treat” it talks about her favorite meal which is chocolate chip pancakes that her dad makes for her every Saturday morning. She enjoys when her entire family gets together on a Sunday morning to have breakfast together. As I was reading this essay I saw a pattern going. “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” talks about how nowadays it seems like people need an occasion or something a little more than an ordinary day to get together and eat a meal together. For Grace and her family this time is every Saturday morning for them. “I think I am the only one who has not gotten sick of chocolate chip pancakes, but I find importance in sticking to tradition.” (Frohock 1). Grace talks about how this is tradition for her family which for them makes every Saturday morning an occasion. Tradition is very important to Grace, it is what gets her family together on Saturday mornings. Pollan makes the claim of how less and less people are preparing meals from scratch nowadays, Grace’s family traditions is the opposite of what pollen is claiming which is good because it shows that preparing meals from scratch is still alive and well to this day. For Grace chocolate chip pancakes are more than just a food it symbolizes family. Grace offers a more moving portrait of tradition, by eating food that is a part of her family tradition, in this case the pancakes brings back the memories of her being with her family when she eats them.
Final Draft
Steve Rife
Eng. 110 H2
Prof Miller
31 October 2018
The Journey into Food
Food is the center of many activities and holidays. Can you remember a time when you celebrated Christmas or thanksgiving without food? The article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Michael Pollan is about how society’s views have changed from those back fifty, sixty years ago. Back then cooking a meal from scratch was the normal and only thing to do. Now you can go to the grocery store and buy and frozen pizza and pop it into the oven instead of actually having to make the dough and the sauce before you cook it. The article explains how now; most people look at cooking a home cooked meal from scratch as a special occasion. Pollan talks about Julia Child who is a chef on the TV show “The French Chef”. Her show was set up in a familiar setting, a home kitchen. When she cooked a meal she would start from meal prep to the finish product. The sound of the pots and pans smashing together made Pollen feel like it was less of him watching TV and more like being in the kitchen himself. Now shows like Hells Kitchen are both for entertainment as well as cooking rather only focusing on the cooking as with Childs show.
After reading and analyzing essays written by Grace Frohock, Eric Langland, and Jacob Hickey along with the piece written by Pollan there is a distinct pattern that is starting to form. Pollan talks about how cooking shows today are more for entertainment purposes rather than learning how to cook a full meal from scratch like what is showed in the Julia Child cooking shows. He claims that the practice of cooking a meal from scratch is starting to diminish. After reading the three peer essays it shows that this is not the case, in fact it is the opposite. All three peers talked about how preparing a home cooked meal with their family are memories that they will cherish forever. When they eat their favorite meals all of those memories come back to them when they eat their favorite dish. All three of the dishes are prepared from scratch, as they create the meal they would sing and dance together. Eric Langland talked about putting on Frank Sinatra in the background as they cooked. Grace Frohock explained that having breakfast with her family on Saturdays was tradition in her house and everyone knows you can not break tradition.
Pollan brings up a French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s who claimed that cooking makes us who we are. Meaning that cooking our meals instead of eating everything raw separates us humans from other animals. “It was the discovery of cooking by our early ancestors, not tool making or language or meat eating that made us human. By providing our primates forebears with a more energy dense and easy to digest diet, cooked food altered the course of human evolution, allowing our brains to grow bigger and our guts to shrink.” (Pollan 17). Cooking our food makes it easier to chew it and it unlocks more nutrients when the food is cooked. That gave us more time to focus on other things. Cooking food not only gives people a meal but it gives an excuse to get together with family and friends. Preparing and cooking a meal creates an endless amount of activates centered around food.
Pollan explains how cooking a homemade meal is drastically falling in popularity among people. The only aspect of cooking that is actually rising is outdoor grilling. “Chunks of animal flesh seared over an open fire: grilling is cooking at its most fundamental and explicit, the transformation of the raw into the cooked right before our eyes. It makes a certain sense that the grill would be gaining adherents at the very moment when cooking meals and eating them together is fading from the culture.” (Pollan 17). Outdoor grilling is a great excuse to get people together to eat a meal.
Grace Frohock wrote an article called “The Saturday Morning Treat” it talks about her favorite meal which is chocolate chip pancakes that her dad makes for her every Saturday morning. She enjoys when her entire family gets together on a Sunday morning to have breakfast together. As I was reading this essay I saw a pattern going. “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” talks about how nowadays it seems like people need an occasion or something a little more than an ordinary day to get together and eat a meal together. For Grace and her family this time is every Saturday morning for them. “I think I am the only one who has not gotten sick of chocolate chip pancakes, but I find importance in sticking to tradition.” (Frohock 1). Grace talks about how this is tradition for her family which for them makes every Saturday morning an occasion. Tradition is very important to Grace, it is what gets her family together on Saturday mornings. Pollan makes the claim of how less and less people are preparing meals from scratch nowadays, Grace’s family traditions is the opposite of what pollen is claiming which is good because it shows that preparing meals from scratch is still alive and well to this day. For Grace chocolate chip pancakes are more than just a food it symbolizes family. Grace offers a more moving portrait of tradition, by eating food that is a part of her family tradition, in this case the pancakes brings back the memories of her being with her family when she eats them.
Another fellow class mate Eric Langland shared his favorite food and the value he gets from that dish in an article he wrote called, “Homemade Mac and Cheese”. Throughout this essay he talks about food and the imported relationships we build around food. Whenever he thinks about this dish he gets memories of his family and sharing the dish with them on holidays, and special occasions. These are times that he looks forward to, it is not everyday that his whole family gets together and eats a well prepared meal together. This touches upon the pattern that Pollan brought up. Pollan feels that the cooking shows on television today are focused more on the entertainment side of things instead of the actual process of cooking a meal from scratch like what is port raid in Julia Child’s cooking shows. Eric and his family is another example of why making meals from scratch is still popular to most.
Many people relate emotions with food. Regardless what way you are feeling, people have a favorite meal to turn to, to suppress that feeling. Jacob Hickey relates with food in the same way. As I read his “Food for Thought” essay he talked about how he was scared to abandon his family and set off for college. “While it may seem strange, these very feelings actually led to the discovery of my new favorite meal: turkey soup, because it represents not only a creamy and chunky flavorful dish, but the love my parents and I have toward each other.” It seems like he is using this turkey soup as a “comfort food” for when he is feeling homesick while at school. Jacob talked about how when he eats this dish he is reminded of the love he shares with his parents. The last time he ate this meal with his family he wanted to not only remember a good meal he wanted to remember a good night as well. As they were cooking dinner he turned on some Frank Sinatra to be played in the background. When he was cooking this meal with his family he said that it felt “normal” being with them singing, cooking, having a good time. These are the feelings he gets when he eats turkey soup.
All three of the essays that I have read and analyzed have all followed the same pattern, how their favorite meals remind them of being at home with their family. Each essay categorized this meal as their comfort food. Whenever they are away from their family for long periods of time, each of them can make this meal and it will bring back priceless memories for them. By attaching food to these memories it is a way of being able to keep these memories close. Every time one of these three eat their favorite meal it will bring back memories of their family which can help them in times of discomfort.
After reading and analyzing essays written by Grace Frohock, Eric Langland, and Jacob Hickey along with the piece written by Pollan a pattern became obvious. Pollan claims that the practice of cooking a meal from scratch is starting to diminish, in fact, after reading the three peer essays the opposite occurred. All three of them talk about preparing their favorite meals with their families. This shows that the practice of cooking meals from scratch is still alive and well today. It is important to keep this alive because cooking home cooked meals with your family creates special memories that people will cherish forever.
Recent Comments