Our Culinary Memories

Emotional Ties to Food through History

“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.”-Brillat-Savarin

This week, I’m using Brillat-Savarin and Salvador Dali’s writing on food to explore emotional connections to food, in the past and today (for more on this series, see this introductory post).

Food is deeply connected to our emotional selves: Food is connected to emotionally charged memories that result in longing or comfort or revulsion or any number of other feelings. Certain flavors and textures elicit reactions not necessarily based on past experiences but on personal preferences or even just how we’re feeling that day.

None of this is groundbreaking stuff: The above is something you experience every single day without me telling you that’s what’s going on.

But when I was thinking about emotions and food, I started to think about how this looked for people before me, too. How did hunger, or abundance, influence my ancestors’ relationships to food? How has that trickled down to me today?

I also talk about the unique challenges of selecting museum exhibits meant to spark a universalized discussion of emotion and food, when our emotional relationship to food is so personal.