Alice Waters, owner and founder
of Chez Panisse and The Edible
Schoolyard Project, USA
Women innately understand nourishment. Think of the
fact that women fundamentally nourish children from
the moment they enter the world; we have that within
ourselves. And perhaps in part because of that, I
believe we have a deeper understanding that food
is about nourishment, but it is also about love.
As women, we can change the way we eat through
daily changes in the way we live: by buying food from
the people who take care of the land, knowing who our
food producers are, and eating food that’s in season.
These everyday actions can have a profound effect
and are their own acts of love – love for the land that
produces our food, and love and respect for the people
who care for it. We change how we eat when we
reconnect with nature and empower our children to
do the same, engaging them in every part of the process
of planting a garden, harvesting their food and cooking
a meal together.Ruth Reichl, food writer, USA
Eating is learned behaviour; Japanese children aren’t born
with an innate taste for seaweed, rice and fish any more
than American children are born with a desire for hot
dogs, French fries and sweet fizzy sodas. We are taught
to like these things. It’s up to us to make sure we’re giving
our children good information for the rest of their lives.
This means not only offering food that is fresh, clean
and healthy for them, but that is also good for the planet.
Among the many lessons we learn at the table is how
much our food choices matter. Food connects us to the
Earth and all the people who raise it.
While we’re teaching our children to eat, we’re also
teaching them to think. What’s on the table is important,
but so is who’s around it. We need to teach our children
to enjoy the give and take that occurs at the table – one
of the few times we actually slow down enough to listen
to one another.
Perhaps most important of all is that we’re sharing
the same meal. The idea of “children’s food” is a pernicious
modern invention that sends a terrible message. What we
should be saying is: “Taste this. Come join us. Pull up a
chair. Life is so delicious.”Maya Gallus,
filmmaker, Red Queen
Productions, Canada
Women are not supposed to take
up much space in this world. To
ask for more. To desire. To want.
Our appetites, we are told, are
shameful and must be diminished.
In the process, we diminish and
shame ourselves.
While makingThe Heat: A
Kitchen (R)evolution, I discovered
women who were taking up their
space in male-dominated environs,
and also revelling in their own
appetites, taking pleasure not only
in the preparation of food but in the
eating of it.
Feeding others can be an act
of love, a selfless thing, rightly
celebrated. It’s also gendered
behaviour, expected of women.
Feeding ourselves, on the other
hand, is a different kind of love,
and, for many women, a radical act.
Female chefs are at the vanguard
of change, serving as role models
to new generations, not only
challenging systemic discrimination,
but also confronting centuries of
socialisation around women and
food, giving us permission to take
up our space and, also, to eat with
gusto. And therein lies a simple
truth: that we, too, desire; we, too,
hunger; and we, too, have appetites.Cooking up a Better Food
Future: A Women’s Vision
(Parabere Essays, $25, pbk)
is available on Amazon.
parabereforum.com60 GOURMET TRAVELLER