In the Kitchen With An Appetite

This week I worked on my thesis: The Legitimacy of Cookbooks as Rhetoric.   One of the cookbooks that I have selected to look at is Melissa Clark’s, In the Kitchen with an Appetite, featuring family stories of eating and cooking.  Each chapter begins with a short essay, typically including a story about Clark’s childhood or memory, and concludes with a recipe.   Clark begins the book by sharing childhood memories of travelling with her foodie parents, being exposed to all kinds of food that children normally “squeal over” and refuse to try.  One story that I found particularly entertaining reveals how Clark’s family used a technique called, “Clarkwise” to rotate their plates clockwise after eating only one quarter of their plates, so each member could experience something new.  Cute idea, right?

I love this cookbook.  Perhaps it’s the Whiskey Soaked Dark Chocolate Cake’s ingredients, but I venture to say that it is more likely the story that Clark perfected the cake to win the hearts of all the boys in her class I love most.  Or it could be her updated Thanksgiving classic, Pumpkin Pie that uses Butternut Squash to woo her friends and family, staunch traditionalists when it comes to Turkey Day.  It is not only the recipes and stories within, but the emotions that are evoked when I read the stories.   It was as if I was sitting at the table, moving plates Clarkwise, or being fooled by the “Butternut Squash” at Thanksgiving with the Clarks.  

Clark demonstrates how deeply people care about food and the traditions that surround the food.  Top Chef, Francis Lam, frequently says, "I eat food because I love food. I cook food because I love food. But I write about food because I love people." Food and the meals we share, tell stories about who we are and how we want to live.  If the occasion is significant, we mark it with food.  It tells our story.