The Important Role Of Food

As I sit here amid the disarray of a kitchen after all the meals have gone out of a Home Cuisine pickup/delivery day, I wonder what in the heck I’m doing firing up the computer. Do I really have the energy? Probably not. But the thing is, I really do want to communicate about food.

My first love is cooking. Maybe with friends I have dinner parties as a means of communication—not just seeing the people who are important to me, but letting them know how much I care about them. With Home Cuisine, of course, it’s a business, but it is a unique one. Because I’m personally providing the meals, I feel in touch with all of my customers in a special sort of way. So since the roasted chicken and blueberry crumbles can’t speak for me, I’ve adopted this blog.

Home Cuisine was created for those trying to lose weight or accommodate medical conditions, and for those who just don’t have time to cook. On the surface, that’s three very different groups. But I’m convinced that all of us have one thing in common: we just want to sit down to a good meal. We want more than fast food on the plate—we want flavorful, balanced meals, organic where possible, that are different from what we had yesterday and will have tomorrow. We want meals that we would make for ourselves if we only had time (and for dieters, if it only were safe to keep all that food in the kitchen).

So I got to thinking about how special that is in today’s world. Years ago, when I was growing up, many mothers didn’t work, and they took great pride in creating wonderful dinners for their families. I am the first one in favor of women’s opportunities, so I fully support mothers who work now, but it is a whole lot easier to dream up a wonderful dinner and use complicated recipes when you have plenty of time. It seems like creative cooking is easier for professionals (like me) or inspired amateurs on the weekends, assuming such inspired amateurs don’t have kids with soccer schedules.

So that’s just the beginning of what I’m going to be thinking about, since it’s a part of what Home Cuisine is all about. What is it about food that gives it more of a role in our lives than just sustenance? Yeah, I know, books have been written about it. But this is more immediate. I’m thinking about it because I’m the one that’s making the meals for a lot of people who trust me to do a good job.