The Theory of Foodativity

According to French theorist Roland Barthes, "When he buys an item of food, consumes it, or serves it, modern man does not manipulate a simple object in a purely transitive fashion; this item of food sums up and transmits a situation; it constitutes an information; it signifies."

I think Julia Child would have had to agree. As written in her book, My Life in France, Child learned from her husband that the French believed "good cooking was regarded as a combination of national sport and high art." To the French, a meal was regarded as more than just food on a plate, and Child was immediately sold on this while attending the famous cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu. It was there that she learned that the best food is prepared without shortcuts, and she could taste for herself the impact that proper technique, patience and high-quality ingredients made on something as simple as scrambled eggs. Her instructor, Chef Bugnard, taught that, "you never forget a beautiful thing that you have made... even after you eat it, it stays with you -- always." As Barthes points out, food is more than a simple staple; it has the ability to tell a story, give information and have a deeper meaning. Child studied as many ways to prepare the same piece of fish as possible. Fried, broiled, baked, different sauces, different herbs - the options are endless. She also spent countless hours perfecting her recipe for mayonnaise. Something as simple as a condiment had to be given as much consideration as a lavish ballottine of veal. Child wrote, "How magnificent to find my life's calling, at long last!"

While food writer Ruth Reichl, experienced her first realization that food has power and significance at an early age, Child was an adult. Coincidentally both were in a foreign land; Reichl was in Montreal, away from her family at boarding school, and Child was 36 years old, living with her husband in France while he was on a US government job. This further illustrates that any one thing, in this case an epiphany, has an infinite number of possibilities of occurrence. Just as a recipe for fish or mayonnaise can vary, so can the story of of a similar experience.